Confused
by Redwaters
Summary: Everyone thinks Flik has lost his memory when a person who looks just like him shows up. But they are in for quite surprise. Setting in Suikoden 2.
1. What's up with him?

**Copy Rights:** Suikoden is bought to you by the Company Konomi And by the writer me. 

**Dedicated Suikoden Fans (Sub-Deditecation- Viktor and Flik fans)**

**Notes: **The Hero of Suikoden II is Justin and the castle is Hogwarts (cause I'm a Harry Potter Fan). Possible Suikoden spoilers

**What's Up With Him?**

"Something is not right." Freed Y said as he paced back and forth in Viktor's room at Hogwarts castle. "Sir Flik should be back by now, whether the mission was a success or not. Maybe the rumors are true…." Freed Y stop in front of Viktor, who was sitting at a table drink his ale.

"Will you calm down?" Viktor says. "You're making me sick and you'll wear a hole into the floor and soon you'll end up fall in the room below us." Viktor takes a slug of ale and then wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. "Look, just cause Flik is one day late, doesn't mean we have to panic. He's a big boy and he can take care of himself. So sit down and have a pint with me." Viktor motion to a chair across from him. "Since Flik's not here and you have my other drinking buddy out keeping an eye for him, I have nobody else to drink with." Viktor gives a drunken grin. "You should know that I hate to drink alone."

"Sir Viktor…how can you think about drinking at this time? Have you not heard the rumors that have circled the castle?" Freed Y's face was sick with worry. "Even Shu is taking them seriously." He went back to pacing the floor. "Bandits could have our Warrior Village hero out in the woods, naked and bleeding to death, while you sit there drinking."

"Oh, they're just rumors." Viktor said waving a hand like it was nothing. "I'll eat my gloves if Flik has lost to a handful of bandits. He'd go berserk the minute they even try to take Odessa away from him."

"But what if he was knocked on the head." Freed Y stop in front of Viktor again. He waved an index finger in bear-man's face. "Did you ever think about that? Hmmm?" Freed Y straightens up and put his hand on sides of his face. "Or what if he was drugged? Then he couldn't possible defend himself. We must send out a search party this minute for him." Freed Y heads for the door. "I'm going to tell Shu we must."

"Whoa, slow down." Viktor jumps up from his chair. "Let's give it one more day a least, so as not to wound his pride." He suggested. "At least leave it till the morning." Viktor made a reach to grab Freed Y's shoulder, but Freed Y was already jumping back as the bedroom door flung open with force.

"Viktor, Freed Y!! (Whew)…Good news, he's back and he's ok." A young man voice pants through the opening of the door. Freed Y opens the door wider show a young man leaning on the frame of the door with his right hand and holding his side with his left. He was a couple years younger than Viktor and had a build that was slightly smaller than him too. The young man had short brown hair and brown eyes. He wore a red bandana around his head, a red long sleeve shirt tucked into a pair of black pants, a leather belt, a pair of leather gloves, and a pair of leather boots. On his back was a two-handed sword.

"See?! What did I tell you?" Viktor laughed. "I told you that Flik would be just fine. Thanks for the good news Jason." Viktor said to the young man. "Freed Y here was about to taint Flik's dignity by having Shu send out a search party for him."

"Well…you see. I meant no harm. It's just that…there are…that is to say…" Freed Y search madly to find the right words to say about the situation.

"It's ok, it's ok." Viktor laughed again. "Buy him a drink and call it even. Now that he's back I have all my drinking buddies, plus one more."

"Don't celebrate yet." Jason said. "I can't put my finger on it, but something about him is not right."

"What do you mean?" Viktor asked. He looked at Jason with a raised eyebrow.

"Well…" Jason rubs the back of his head and looks at the floor. "Maybe you should have a look for yourself. I didn't get to talk to him, because he just brushed past me without a word."

"Well, where was he going?" Freed Y asked.

"I don't know. He looked like he was…lost." Jason still didn't look at Viktor, nor did he look at Freed Y.

"Well let's go find him." Viktor said with a bit anxious in his voice. It surprises Freed Y and Jason.

"You don't have to go too far to find him." Jason said. "Cause there he goes now." He had turned around in time to see a man past by them.

"Are you sure that's him?" Freed Y inquired. "The outfit is like Sir Flik's, but the color is all wrong and I don't see his sword by his side."

"Hey, Flik!" Viktor yelled out the door. "Come have a drink with us." The man acts like he did not hearing a word being said to him. Viktor pushes passed Jason and Freed Y to give chase after the man. "Hey, wait a minute." The man doesn't turn around, he didn't even stop. Viktor grabs a shoulder and turn him around. It was then that Viktor realized something, "Hey, your not wearing your traditional blue, no shield and…. And where is your little sword?" Viktor was looking at his friend now. Seemed to be Flik's outfit, but where there was suppose to be blue was red and there was a something bumping out from under his cape. Plus there were bow ends coming from over the top of the man's right shoulder and below his left waist. There was also sword ends parallel with the bow. Viktor, out of curiosity, lifted the cape to see a two-handed sword in its sheath with a large quiver full of arrows attached to it.

"What is your problem?" Viktor was asked, as the cape was being pulled from his hands.

"I see you've upgraded from that baby sword to a man's sword. So how does it feel to upgrade Odessa?" Viktor said with a laugh as a hand slams down on guy's shoulder and almost makes the man's knees buckle. In return, Viktor receives a cold glare. "Hey I didn't mean any offence to her, I just meant that it must be nicer to have a better weapon." Viktor grabs the top end of the bow sticking out from under the man's cape with his other hand. "By the way, when did you start carrying your bow and arrows with you Flik?"

"I'm not Flik. My name is Clik." The man says. He wipes the hand that was on his shoulder off and jerks his bow end from the other hand. "I wished people quite calling me that."

"Wait…what did you say? Clik?!" Viktor was taken back. Freed Y and Jason _were_ looking over Viktor's shoulders at the guy, but now they were looking at each other.

"Flik are you ok?" Viktor takes one of his gloves off and feels the top of his friend's head. "No fever."

"Will you knock it off?" The man brushes Viktor's hand away from his head. "Where do you get off touching me? And get it straight my name is Clik. C-L-I-K." He looks at the group. "Who are you people anyway?"

"Who…who are we?" Viktor felt hurt. "Don't you know your best friend and comrades in arms?"

"Know, you? I've never even seen you before in my life." Clik said angrily.

"See, I told you something happen." Freed Y said, coming between Viktor and Clik. "He was robbed, that's why he's wearing different clothes." Freed Y started rubbed Clik's head. "He must have been knocked on the head too. That's why he doesn't seem to remember us."

"What about the weapons? If he was robbed, how did he afford to get those?" Jason asked pointing towards the weapons sticking from under Clik's cape.

"Maybe out of the goodness of others." Viktor said with a shrug.

"Wh…what do you think you are doing?" Clik tried to brush away Freed Y's hands.

"Checking for any head injury." Freed Y said. "I am certain that a bump to the head must be why you are acting so strange."

"I'm acting strange?! What about everyone else here?" Clik finally managed to brush Freed Y away from himself. "Everyone here calling me Flik, asking me if I'm ok."

"I didn't feel any bumps, but he kept moving too much to know for sure." Freed Y said franticly. "Let us get him to the infirmary."

"I'm not going anywhere with you." Clik said. He starts to walk away, but Viktor take him in a bear hold. "Hey, what do you think you're doing?" Clik yelled.

"We're taking you to the infirmary." Viktor said as he struggled to keep a hold on Clik. "Dr. Huan will see what is wrong with you and make you all better."

"I don't need to be made all better, cause there is nothing wrong with me." Clik said as he elbowed Viktor in the gut; causing Viktor to let go of him. Clik tried to run, but Viktor managed to grab the man's wrist with one hand, while holding his own stomach with the other arm. Like a reflex, Clik grabbed Viktor's wrist with his free hand and flipped the big man over his shoulder. Viktor landed on his back with a loud slam, the wind knocked out of him and making him release Clik's wrist. Now free, Clik made another try to run for it, but Jason and Freed Y managed to grab the red dressed man's arms.

"Get this pile of flesh off of me." A muffled voice came from under Viktor. "My face is being pushed into the floor."

"Ah, shut up old man." Viktor grunted as he sat up. "You didn't have to land on you. Geez that hurt."

"No, but I had you land on me." Start Dragon Sword said angrily. "I'm flat enough as it is. I don't need any more help from you."

"Let me go!" Clik yelled as he tried to pull free.

"Not till we get you checked out Sir Flik." Freed Y said as he tried to pull him back.

"What is going on here?" Shu said as he came into the area. "You make enough noise to wake the dead." He sees Clik. "Sir Flik, welcome back." Shu said, looking at Clik then at the others confused. "Why are you men holding him?"

"Because Flik isn't right in the head." Viktor said, rubbing his back as he rises to his feet. "We're trying to take him to infirmary."

"For the last time, my name is Clik." Clik yells.

"And he keeps calling himself that." Viktor says with a sigh.

"I see." Shu rubs his chin as he thinks. "Well…Sir Clik, please except our apologies."

"You mean that? You believe me when I said my name is Clik?" The man stops struggling and looks at Shu hard.

"Yes, I do." Shu says. He motions to Freed Y and Jason to release Clik. The two men reluctantly do as they were told. "To show how sorry we are for your mistreatment, why don't you have one of the best rooms we can offer right now?" Shu points to the room they were in front of, next to Viktor's, Flik's room.

"Well, ok." Clik says as he looks at Shu, then at Freed Y, Jason, and Viktor. The three men didn't seem to agree with what Shu was doing, but didn't say anything. "What about them?"

"I'll deal with them. Why don't you make yourself comfortable?" Shu turns from Clik to the other. "You boys will join me in hall." He leaves in the direction of the Main Hall.

"Now that's the first sane man I've met so far." Clik said as he opens the door and goes in. He looks out back Freed Y, Jason, and Viktor before turning back to going into the room. "Nutcases."


	2. The Treatment Plan

**Disclaimer**: Alrights of Suikoden belong to Konomi, Clik is my idea 

**Note** This is a revise. Thanks Karen Belle for pointing out my mistake, spell check changed on.

**The Treatment Plan**

"Shu…what were you thinking?" Viktor asked after storming in to the Meeting hall, then he realizes that they weren't alone. In the Meeting Hall with them were: Justin, Nanami, Apple, Ridley, Dr. Huan, Tuta, Teresa, Shin, Kinnison, Chaco, Camus, and Miklotov. "Geez, why not invite the whole army in on this."

"I called them here, because they will be helping us. So they need to be informing right now. Others will be informed about this later." Shu told the three men that just came in.

"You make is sound like we're planning to have a battle right now." Viktor said, rubbing the back of his head. "What's going on?"

"Well, it's obvious that Sir Flik is not right in the head." Dr. Huan said.

"That's why we were going to bring him to you." Jason said. "But Shu stopped us and told Flik to go to his room. Made it sound like a privilege to go there."

"It already seems that using brute force wasn't helping. It would seem best to handle this with a level head." Shu said. "It would seem that Sir Flik had quite a blow to the head, forgetting who he is and who we are."

"The only way we can help Sir Flik is by trying to help him remember who he is. But we must do this slowly, we can't rush this." Dr. Huan straightens his glasses. "My suggestion is to let him go along with his fantasy of being this person, Clik, and introduce him to his regular routine. In time, Sir Flik should come to back to us."

"Do you think it will work Doctor?" Tuta asked his mentor."

"It's the only thing we can do for him at the moment." Dr. Huan said gravely.

"So…so you're saying, that he remembers nobody?" Nanami said with amazement. "Hate to see what Nina's going to be like when she finds out about this."

"But there weren't any bumps on his head when I checked him." Freed Y said confused. "How did he lose his memory?"

"Could have been something traumatic." Dr. Huan said after thinking for a moment. "The shock of being robbed or something else."

"Couldn't have been from getting rob." Viktor said crossing his arms in front of him. "Nobody could scare him, not even Luca Blight." He gives a good belly laugh. Nobody else laugh, so Viktor stop quickly.

"The plan is this." Shu brings out a piece of paper from his pocket with writing on it. He holds it out to show everyone.

"You have it all written out?" Justin asked.

"Of course." Shu said, studying the paper. "Can't have a good plan unless it's all written out." He hands the paper to Apple. "Let's have it."

"R…right." Apple suddenly realizes she's on and takes the paper. "Here's the plan, so let's follow it for the sake of Sir Flik." Everyone nods in agreement. "So far as of his weekly routine noticeable to other is this. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are when he does archery training. Tuesdays and Thursdays are when he does cavalry training. Weekends are anyone's guess." Apple took a deep breath, "Each person here will be assigned to a different task." She looks at Viktor and Jason, "You jobs are to help him with his everyday routine. That means how he starts his mornings to going to all to what he does at night."

"What?! You mean we have to be his wet nurse? Follow him around and make sure he does his lessons?" Jason asked sarcastically.

"No, you just have to walk him through what he would usually do." Dr. Huan stated. "Don't force, but talk him into it. A steady routine might jog his memory."

"Plus you also will have to introduce everyone to him so he can remember who they are." Shu added.

"Do you know how many people are in this castle?" Jason exclaimed. "It'll take forever to introduce them and their purpose here."

"Forget introductions, do you know how early that guy wakes up?!" Viktor complained. "I don't roll around until at least a quarter to ten, if I'm luck." Then with a grin on his face he adds. "Especially after a good night's drinking."

"Do you want to help Flik or not?" Nanami asked as she got into bear-man's face. "We all have to make sacrifices."

"So glad you agree, because it will be up to you and Chaco to make sure that Nina keeps her distances from Sir Flik for awhile." Shu said. "We don't need anything more traumatic sending him further into his delusion."

"Huh…what?" Nanami was caught off guard. She turns around to face Shu. "Are you serious?"

"We all have to make sacrifices." Viktor said mockingly. He receives a glare from Nanami in return.

"I got to hang with the tomboy?" Chaco whined. "And I have to keep a love crazed girl off this guy's back? You're asking a lot here Shu."

"Hopefully this won't take any longer than a week to cure." Dr. Huan said reassuringly.

"And if it doesn't?" Chaco asked.

"Well, we'll have see what to do from there." Dr. Huan replied. "But I'm sure that Sir Flik will be back to his senses in no time, he has a strong mind after all."

"Moving on…" Apple said sternly, not liking the fact that she was being ignored. "Kinnison and Teresa will help Sir Flik with the archery training. He is Archery Captain, so we must make sure that he up to the task."

"I'll see what I can do." Kinnison said.

"Anything to help." Teresa nodded.

"As for the cavalry, that will be Camus and Miklotov's department." Apple continues on down the list.

"Considerate done my lady." Camus saluted.

"Agreed." Miklotov also saluted.

"Next up…" Apple reads down the paper some more. "Freed Y."

"What?!" Freed Y straightens up suddenly. "What can I do?"

"Help him with his sword training." Apple said.

"Me?" Freed Y looked at Viktor and Jason. "What about them? They have swords more his sizes." He turns back to Apple and Shu. "After all, he seems to think that a two-handed sword would suit him now."

"In order to have Sir Flik remember things correctly, we need to re-introduce him to his old weapon." Dr. Huan explained. "I wish we had his old sword, Odessa. It might've help to refresh his memory." He sighed.

"Besides, we don't even know if Flik even knows how to hand his new sword." Jason commented.

"Though we could try to introduce him to both." Viktor said hopefully.

"Maybe, we'll have wait and see." Shu said. "As of right now, I think putting a shield and a one-handed sword in Sir Flik's hands might be a better idea at the moment."

"O…ok." Freed Y said reluctantly.

"Ridley will make sure that Sir Flik's leadership will still be as sharp as ever." Apple says.

"My suggestion would be to question him during times that he's not busy or tired." Shu adds.

"Understood." Ridley said sternly.

"Last but no least of all…" Apple looks at who was left, "Justin and Tuta."

"Huh?" Both boys said in unison as they looked up at Apple.

"You boys will follow Sir Flik around and take notes of how he is doing." Apple said, handing the boys notebooks. "With these notes, Dr. Huan and Shu will know how the treatment is going. This way they can determine on whether or not things are going well."

"Uh…" Justin started to say, taking the notebook.

"OK." Tuta said excitedly and snatch his book from Apple's hand. "You can count on me to do a good job."

"I'll try my best." Justin said finally.

"Alright." Shu said clapping his hands together and rubbing them. "Everyone knows what to do? Good, cause tomorrow is Monday. So the people that will be with Sir Flik will be Viktor, Jason, Kinnison, and Teresa. Seeing as this will be his first day back, we should take things easy." He looks at Ridley. "I would suggest about waiting on questioning Sir Flik about anything. Let him have time to adjust to everything for a while." Shu looks at Justin and Tuta. "You will be following, but don't let him know that you are. Try to keep out of his sight as best you can. Cause if he sees you, he'll want to know what your real intension are." He looks at them very seriously. "And if he finds out, Sir Flik might get offended and drive him further back in to his fantasy."

"We'll try our best." Justin had a little worry in his voice.


	3. First Day Part 1

**Discalimer:** SuikodenKonomi, ClikMe 

This was actually going to be one chapter, but it seem to be get a little long, so I cut it into to. I figure it might be fun to write in different people point of view for this part.

**First Day – Part 1  
****Viktor and Jason's point of view **

"Viktor!" There was a pound on the door. "Viktor! We're five minutes late! It's after nine." The pounding becomes harder. "We were supposed to be up before he does, so we could get him up on time. Let's go in there."

"Go away and let me sleep." Viktor grumbled. "And quit pounding on that door. It makes the pounding in my head worse."

"I told you not to start that drinking game with Amada and Rikimaru." Jason says as he slams open the door and barrages into the room.

"Arrgh." Viktor sits up slowly and ruffles up the hair on his head. "Nobody challenges the drinking king and gets away with it." He flops back onto his pillow and bring the covers up over his head. "I had to defend my title." His muffled voice comes from under them.

"I would think you'd quit after the thirteen shot of rum." Jason said with a sigh, as he yanks the covers off the big guy. "Now get up and get dressed." He picks up the shirt Viktor had thrown into a corner the night before. "Should really think about getting your laundry done." He holds the crumbled shirt away from him as he wrinkled his nose.

"Yeah, yeah." Viktor yawns before he finally gets out of bed and stumbles over to his stand where his washing dish and pitcher of water was. He smacks is dry lips as he pours water from a pitcher in the dish. Viktor lets out another yawn, before splashes the cold fresh water in is face and the shake his head like a dog drying himself.

"Hey!" Jason yelps and put the shirt up as defense against the drops of water coming at him. "If I wanted a shower, I'd go to the baths."

"Sorry." Viktor grumbled as he snatched the shirt from Jason and pulls it on. He does his belt, yanks his gloves on and slings the Star Dragon Sword over his shoulder.

"Must you jerk me so much?" SDS complained. "You may have to wake up, but it doesn't me that I have to."

"Oh shut up." Viktor said, rubbing his head. "Let's go." He motions Jason to follow him. They walk out of his room and over to Flik's room. Viktor pounds loudly on the door. '_Head…hurts. Pounding…not good._' Viktor puts a finger to one of his temples and massages it a bit. "Fl…I mean Clik, get your ass up!!" Viktor cringes from the pain in his head. '_Yelling, even worse. Why me?_' No answer comes from the room. Viktor pounds again with his free hand and winces from the pain it caused at the same time. Suddenly, there was a tap on his shoulder. "What?!" Viktor whips around startled and yell. '_Oi…really not a good idea. Now the room is spinning. I'd swear off drinking forever, if it wasn't so good to get so plastered._'

"Whoa, easy there." Jason said, jumping back. "Here, this might make you feel better." Jason holds out a small vial of purple liquid. "It's Praiser."

"Alright." Viktor snatches the vial from Jason and downs it. "I didn't think we have any left."

"Well, now that we have a trading area, a farm, plus a restaurant with many herbs and spice, it's easier to make." Jason said with a matter-a-fact tone in his voice.

"Ok, back to business." Viktor said, tossing the vial over his shoulder. Jason had to duck quickly for it to miss his head. "Let's go in there Clik, we don't have all day." Viktor had resumed pounding on the door. Again there was no answer. "That's it, I'm coming in whether your ready or not." Viktor grabs the knob fiercely and shoves the door open. To his surprise, there was nobody there. Both he and Jason come into the room to have a look around. To their surprise the found the room to be cleaner than even their old Flik would have had it. The bed was made so neatly you could bounce a coin high on it, yesterday's clothes were folded neatly in the hamper, what books he did have were re-organized by height, and the floor was swept clean. So amazed with how the room looked, that when they heard a tap on the door, it startled them. They turn around to see find it to be young Tuta standing in the doorway holding his notebook in one hand and medicine bag in the other. He looked to be a little out of breath.

"Whew I finally had time to get away and get you guys." Tuta managed to get out after a few deep breaths. "Sir Flik has been up for hours."

"Hours?" Viktor nearly choked. "What was he doing up so early? What time did he get up?"

"At least six o'clock." Tuta said, flipping back through his book. "It was at first cock's crow."

"How do you know this?" Jason inquired.

"Cause…well…" Tuta blushed a bit. "I camped out here, to be sure to see Sir Flik leave his room. I slept by the door. Almost killed myself trying to hid when he came bursting out." Tuta seem to turn white, remembering the event that happened. Then he said proudly. "Good thing I did, cause I would have miss a great amounts of notes."

"So where is he?" Viktor asked.

"In the restaurant with Lord Justin, he keeping Sir Flik entertained." Tuta fidgets on the last sentence.

"Lord Justin?" Jason was surprised at this. "I thought you two were suppose to keep out of sight."

"We tried." Tuta said anxiously. "We were very far away from him, but he found us out and wanted to know what we were up too." Tuta looked at the floor and rubbed the back of his head. "Justin brought up something about breakfast and Sir Flik said that he wouldn't mind cooking it for both of us."

"He what?" Viktor and Jason asked in unison. "Cook?"

"Yeah, surprised Hai Yo too. But the chef didn't object." Tuta waves for the two men to follow him. "Come on, Justin's keeping him busy so you guys can catch up to him."

**Tutu's Observations**

Tuta was curled up in him mummy sleeping bag. He was dreaming about handing a neat, well-written, pages full notes notebook to his mentor Dr. Huan and being highly praised for his good work. Unfortunately for him, that dream was being interrupted by the crow of the cock. Tuta grumbles something about maybe talking Yuzu into letting that bird be the next meal, when he heard another noise that cause him to shoot straight up. It was the sound of feet hitting the ground and moving about. Tuta struggled madly to get out of his sleeping bag, but much to his bad luck, he found the zipper stuck. With the use of the wall, Tuta managed to stand up and was now hopping around. He looked like a brown jumping jellybean and cursing in the only way an eleven old could. "Brother fairy bag. Of all my spitten luck."

"Who's out there?" He hears come from the door and Tuta stops bouncing around. "Oh snot." He tries to make a run for it. In the brief minute of forgetting he was still in the sleeping bag, Tuta manages to meet the floor face to face. Footsteps come rushing to the door and Tuta had to do an imitation of an inchworm to get way. He heads for a corner, where a conveniently placed large potted plant sat for him to behind. Holding his breath, Tuta sees the door fly open and a man in ninja pants, holding the collar of a ninja shirt to his neck with one hand and the bottom around his waist with his other arm. The man looks around to see where the noise was coming from and spies no one. Shrugging he goes back in and closes the door. Tuta breathes a sigh of relief as he goes back to struggling with the cursed zipper. A few minutes later the door opens again and Tuta stops moving to watch as a man who looks like Flik, dress in a red ninja suit, come jogging out of the room and down hall opposite of where Tuta hid. The man jumps onto the windowsill and squats down like a frog. He seems to be surveying the land below. Deciding to forget about getting out of the sleeping bag, Tuta hops after the man and gets close enough in time to the man dive out the window. Hopping faster, Tuta get to the window in time to see the man glide through the air. "Sir Fl…Clik!" He yells as he sees the man land on the roof of the liberty with great poise and ease.

Whether Clik turned around to see who yelled at him was unknown to Tuta, because at that moment the young boy had a face full of fur. Seems that Mukumuku, the flying squirrel, came in through the window aimed straight at Tuta. One would think that the caped squirrel had mistaken the young doctor for a rather large peanut, because Mukumuku tore away at the sleeping bag. In no time, Tuta was free and Mukumuku was in a cursed fit for losing the chance of eating the world's largest nut. Leaving the squirrel to curse its own luck, Tuta ran to the window to see if Clik was still there. To his lovely luck, the man in red was no longer there. "**For the love of the two runes!**" Tuta roars so loud that birds flocked from the trees. "Where did that guy go?" He whips around to see his notebook on the floor, it had been in the bag with him the whole time, so it was quite beaten. '_Oh, man. There goes the neatness part of my dream._' Tuta picks up the book and scribbles madly about all he had witnessed so far. To his observation, Flik was not himself in anyway. When he finishes writing the last part about the window and Flik jumping out of it, it comes to him.

"Of course. How could I have been so stupid? The dojo, he must be there. Where else would a man in a ninja suit go?" Tuta said to nobody particular. Without really thinking, Tuta closes his book and grabs Mukumuku by the tail, dragging the poor squirrel out after him. Mukumuku starts to object, but Tuta tells him to chill out as that he might need the squirrel's help later. Without much of a choice the squirrel folds it's paws and allowed itself to be dragged down the three flights of stair, out through the courtyard, all the way to the front of the dojo. Once there, Tuta releases the squirrel and peers in through the window to see Clik doing handstand push-ups. '_Is that normal for Sir Flik?_' Tuta wonders. He hears footsteps coming and he turns around to see Miklotov and Camus come up for their morning training. They question Tuta about his being there and he points to Clik, who was now doing the splits to stretch from side to side. Tuta could tell from the looks on the two knight's faces, that this was not Flik's regular routine. Camus proceeds to tell Tuta that they've never seen Flik up so early and train like that before. They continue to watch as Clik now perches himself on a balance beam to do many a gymnastic feat on the beam.

"I've never known Sir Flik to be…be so bendable." Tuta hears Miklotov say with amazement. Tuta proceeds to write it all down. '_This will be interesting stuff for Dr. Huan and Lord Shu._' After awhile, LC Chan and Wakaba come into the dojo through another door, to find Clik there. When Clik spies the teacher with his student, he does a back flip off the beam and lands right in front of them. They talk a while before separating into different sides of the room. "What's going on?" Tuta asks, but the answer become obvious as all three strike a martial arts poses. This surprises everyone, both inside and out. L.C.C and Wakaba look at each other before looking back at Clik. They seem to question on whether he was sure about something or not. Clik nods, they shrug and proceed to attack him. In a flash of flips, tosses, sweep kicks, punches, both teacher and student found themselves on the floor. Clik stands straight up, a left hand on his hip and his right flipping hair that doesn't seem to be there out. Realizing that there was no hair there, Clik blushes and rubs the back of his head instead. After bowing in respect to them, Clik heads for the door. Camus, Miklotov and Tuta scramble over each other as they try to make sure Clik does not see them. Confuse the cape squirrel just stands there and watches as a man, in a red ninja suit, comes from the building. Noticing Mukumuku, Clik says in a sweet voice. "Aren't you adorable." Then with a huge grin, he gives the squirrel a rub on the head and runs for the front of the castle. One would guess that he was heading for where the baths are. In a flash all three men were back to the front of the dojo wondering what was going on.

"I don't know what to make out of any of this, but I think I really need to get Lord Justin up." Tuta says. "Except I can't really take my eyes off Sir Flik any longer than I already have." Suddenly the young doctor gets an idea. He turns to Mukumuku. "Go wake Lord Justin and have him meet us down by the baths." He tells the squirrel. The caped one doesn't move. "Oh come on, please." Tuta begs, but Mukumuku still does nothing, except cross it's paws and turns it's back on them. "Ah, he's still made for mistaking me for a nut." Tuta says, only to get a confused look from Camus and Miklotov. "Never mind, it's a long story." The two knights look at each other and shrug. Then Camus leans down to whisper something into the caped squirrel's ear. Mukumuku's eyes light up and it was gone in a flash. "What did you tell him?" Tuta inquires.

"That there would be a big bag of peanuts in his future if he were to lend a paw." Camus replied with a laugh. "Now you better catch up to Sir Flik before you lose him." Tuta nodded and headed to the front of the castle. Once at the baths, Tuta peeked into the men's room to find Clik washing. Clik splashing a bucket of water on his body and he shiver. '_Washing with cold water? In this weather?_' Tuta was confused.

**Justin's Outlook **

The crow of the rooster reached up to the room of Lord Justin of Hogwarts castle. The first thing that came to Justin's mind was when he first bought that rooster. '_200 potch. Best price you're ever going to get. And think about it, you're buying nature's alarm clock. The man says._' Justin thinks to himself as he rolled over and pulled the pillow over his head. '_I'm thinking about have chicken being put back on the menu._' Justin was able to grab another hour and a half sleep, till a certain caped squirrel, which he found back in Kyaro, rudely awakened him. "Mukuuuumukuuuuuu." Justin said in an irritated voice. "Go away and let me sleep." But the little squirrel squealed and kept pulling on the pillow. "Argh, what do you want?" Justin sat up so suddenly that it made Mukumuku fall on his legs, holding the pillow. The squirrel looked back at him with big eyes. Then he jumped to his feet and made frantic mimic movement, most of it was pointing down the stairs and to the end of the castle. Justin shook his head as he rubbed his eyes. "I don't get it." He flops back on to his bed and tries to pull the blankets over his head. '_Maybe this is a bad nightmare…wait, that's kind of redundant._' Mukumuku hopped on the floor and pull the sheets back. "Whaaaat?" Justin said in an annoyed tone. The squirrel looked around the room to see some things that might help. He grabbed a couple of cotton balls, mashing them together to make a large white ball, then he grabs a black bag and rushed back to the front of the bed.

"Mu, muk." The squirrel put the cotton ball on the back of his head and holding the bag in front of him he bounced on his toes. "Ok…Something about Tuta, I'm assuming." Mukumuku tapped his nose, he toss the bag to the side and taking the cotton ball off his head as he proceed to use it like a sponge. "Baths?" Mukumuku squealed with delight and toss the ball away. He looked around for something else to use. Suddenly he realizes that the answer was on his back. He turns around and points to the cape. "Flik?" Mukumuku taps his nose again. "What about all that?" Mukumuku falls on the floor, looking like it was about to cry. It then jumped on the bed, grabbed Justin collar and starts to shake him. "Wwwwhhhhaaaatttt?" Mukumuku flops on his rear and looks around the room. He spies the notebook and points to it. "Hmm? Tuta Baths Flik notebook ……I don't have a clue."

At this point Mukumuku was now throwing a squirrel of a tantrum. After a few minutes, he calmed down. He runs to the notebook, grabs it, throws it at Justin, grabs Justin's wrist, and pulls with all his might. "Alright, alright. I'm getting up." Justin gets out of bed and gets dressed. He looks down at his caped annoyance. "Now what?" The squirrel took off with Justin chasing after him, with his notebook in hand. They ran down all five flights of stair and to the main hall in time to have a man with a large towel, wrapped around his body from under his arms down to his knees, hurry past Justin from the bath area back to the officer's barracks. Tuta came into the room just after the man left. He stops by the staircase, seeing Justin leaning on the door jam.

"Oh, Lord Justin. You're up and wake. Come on. We must keep up with Sir Flik." Tuta pulls Justin after him. Heaving a sigh, Justin allows himself to pulled by Tuta down the hall, back up to the third floor. There they both hid by the wall where the staircase was. They kept an eye on door and waited for its residents to make an exit. Here Justin was finally able to catch his breath, rest and hear what kind of morning Tuta had with Clik so far.

"Definitely not like Flik." Justin mutters, but was hush as Tuta pointed to the door. They looked as they see the man they have to watch come out dress as he was described the night before, weapons and all. The man headed for the stairs, which meant Justin and Tuta had to beat feet quick. They ran from the staircase and found; yet another conveniently placed large potted plant to hid behind. They watch as the red caped man come to go down the stair and slowly, as quietly as they possible could, follow after Clik. They come to the second floor and see him head left down the hall. They follow Clik to the next room, he turns around and they jump back behind the doorway. Clik goes into the next room and they come halfway to the room behind him, when he turns around again. This time they jumped into the stairway. The man has a confused look on his face, but Clik shrugs and moves on down the hall. They follow him and see him go down into yet another room. They get halfway down the hallway when Clik turns around, this time there was not conveniently placed large potted plant to hid behind. There wasn't even a little plant for them to make an attempt. Clik comes towards them and not looking too happy about the fact that he was being followed.

"Uh, oh." Tuta says. "No placed to hide."

"Um…hello, Clik." Justin says.

"Hello…" Clik looks at them with a raised eyebrow. "…um, is you name Lord Justin?" He asked

"Yes…" Justin tried his best to not act too nervous. "And this is Tuta." Tuta looks from around Justin and gives a weak smile.

"Nice to meet you two." Clik says, holding a hand out. Justin slowly takes it and shakes it, then they let go. "Perhaps you can explain why you are following me?"

"Well…we weren't really following you. Um…we were wondering…" Justin searches for something to say, when his stomach growled.

"Hey, you must be hungry." Clik said. "I was about to go to the kitchen and make some breakfast. Would you both like to join me? I've been told that my pancakes are to die for."

"Uh…that would be nice." Justin said, he could have sworn he saw the man's ears twitch when his stomach growled. "The restaurant is this way, if you follow me."

"Oh good. I had a feeling it was, but not too sure." Clik said as he follows after Justin. Tuta followed after him and soon they were all in the restaurant's kitchen. Hai Yo comes in to see Clik mixing batter. Tuta was holding the man's cape and Justin was holding the man's weapons. Hai Yo was astonished to find them in the kitchen and a bit puzzled.

"I could make food your you." Hai Yo said anxiously.

"Nah, it's ok. I like to cook." Clik said with a smile. "Its kind of fun."

"I know what you mean." Hai Yo agreed. "But I didn't know Sir Flik to cook."

"My name is not Flik, it's Clik." There was now a frown Clik's face.

"Uh…" Hai Yo looked at Justin and Tuta. They nodded like it was all right. "Well let me know if I can help, Sir…Clik." Hai Yo left the room rubbing his head and with a confused look on his face. In almost no time Clik had pancakes, scrambled eggs, and orange juice prepared for the three of them.

"Why don't we go to the balcony to eat?" Justin suggests. "It has a nice sight out to go with the meal."

"Sounds like a lovely idea." Clik agreed. He took the plate of eggs and pancakes. "Why don't you take the pitcher of juice?" He said looking at Justin and Tuta. They nodded and he left the room.

"Go get Viktor and Jason, they're suppose to be with him to make sure Flik does his usual routine." Justin whispered to Tuta. Tuta nodded as he handed the cape to Justin and took off for the officers' barracks. Sighing, Justin slings the cape over one shoulder, the heavy weapons on the other and holding the pitcher in both hands trudges out to the balcony.

"Oh, hey. Where did Tuta go?" Clik said, jogging over to relieve Justin of his cape and weapons. "Sorry about that."

"Ah…he went to check in with Dr. Huan." Justin said hesitantly. "He is Dr. Huan's apprentice. He had to make sure he was free to have breakfast here."

"Oh I see." Clik said. He pulls his cape back on while he waits for Justin to have seat, then has a seat himself. He slings his weapons on the back of the chair. The two begin to eat. Justin was amazed at how well everything tasted. '_Looks like Hai Yo might have another rival, next to Gremio. Must make a mental note to write this down later. Whatever happen to Flik's head, it has made him a better cook._' Minutes later Tuta comes through the door and Clik beckons him to come over to join him.

"Tuta, over her…oh no." Clik's face goes white. "Not them." Justin turns around to see Viktor and Jason follow after Tuta enters the room. "It's that bear-man nutcase and his little side-kick." Clik shoves the last mouthful of pancake into his mouth, downs the last of the orange juice in his glass and swallows hard. Nearly chocking, Clik pounds on his chest to get the food down. He slings his weapons over his back and hops over the rail off the balcony, before Viktor and Jason makes it to the table. There was a screech and everyone turns around in time to see Nina hit the floor as she has fainted. Nanami and Chaco come rushing out onto the balcony to drag her off with apologies of letting her get away from them. With that taken care of, everyone goes back to looking over the edge of the balcony. They don't see Clik anywhere.

"How could he do that?" Justin asked, frantically searching for any sign of Clik.

"I saw him jump a story down this morning." Tuta said, flipping back in his notebook. "But nothing about two stories. I hope he didn't hurt himself."


	4. First Day Part 2

**Disclaimer:** I think we all know the drill, so why take up anymore space.

By the way, the army's name is Mavericks army. Picked that up from watching my sister's ongoing playing of Megaman X and the name just stuck with me.

**First Day - Part 2  
****Kinnison and Lady Teresa**

Kinnison was up with the birds and enjoying the rays of the sun by his usual sitting area near the front gate of Hogwarts Castle. By his side was his animal companion, a wolf-dog named Shiro. Suddenly the young man hears an ear-piercing screech come from the restaurant balcony and looks up in time to see a red-cloaked man come falling down from it. Along the way, in a split second, the cloaked man brought out a gymnastic twirling ribbon from under his cloak and throws it up at the banister of the balcony restaurant. The ribbon twirls itself around the banister and the cloaked figure swings into the front entrance of the castle. "Sir Flik is definitely not himself, just like the other have said." Kinnison mentions to Shiro. "I wonder if I will be of any really help in his recovery." The wolf-dog whines in a comforting tone, as into say, '_Try your best and we will see._' Kinnison and Shiro watch in curiosity as the ribbon is tugged on and it uncoils from the banister, floating down to a waiting hand. Once the man has recovered his ribbon, he dashed from the castle entrance to and up the tree that sat in the middle of the courtyard. A very confuse Kinnison looked at Shiro, only to have the wolf-dog give a look of, '_Don't just stand there, do something._' Kinnison nodded and slowly made his way to the tree. He looked up to see the man perched on a high branch, looking back at the people at the balcony restaurant.

"Good, they didn't see me." Clik breathes a sigh of relief.

"Um…Sir…Clik?" Kinnison said timidly.

"Gah!!" Clik was caught off by surprise and jumped up a couple branches more. He looks down to see the young archer. "What do you want? Your not with bear man are you?"

"You mean Sir Viktor?" Kinnison question. "No sir, not at the moment. I'm Kinnison. I'm here…I'm here to make sure you go to your archery practice."

"Archery practice…here?" Clik was confused. "Why would I want to have practice here?"

"Because you are the Archery Captain sir." Kinnison tells Clik.

"Archery…Captain? Me?" Clik hops down till he was perched on a branch that way eye leave with Kinnison, but that Kinnison still had to look up at him. "Either you are in dire need of a high official or you give out promotions to anyone who walks in to this place."

"I do not understand what you mean by that sir, but Lady Teresa is waiting for us in the dojo with the rest of the archers in your unit." Kinnison tells Clik. Clik nods and hops down from the tree. Shiro walks over to meet the two humans. After giving Clik a quick whiff, the wolf-dog growls angrily at him. "Hush, Shiro." Kinnison disciplines his animal friend and Shiro lets out a low whine. Just as they were about to take off for the dojo, a husky voice calls out to them.

"Hey! Wait a minute." There was Viktor, heading straight from them with Jason and Justin behind him.

"Oh no." Clik grabs Kinnison's arm and pulls him along. "Quickly, lets get out of here." He urges.

"But Sir Clik, Sir Viktor and Jason are suppose to accompany you on your rounds." Kinnison says jogging to keep up with his arm.

"They're crazy." Clik tells Kinnison. "Why would I want them to follow me everywhere?"

"It's by orders of Lord Shu." Kinnison starts to explain. "He wish they help you with…"

"With your way around the castle and meet all the people." Jason cuts in quickly. He waves out of Clik's sight, a hand to hush Kinnison. "Shu know that you know nobody here and it's our job to make sure you do."

"You're not going to grab me again are you?" Clik eyes Jason, then Viktor. They shake their heads. "Well…alright. But I warn you, try anything like last night and I won't go as easy as I did." He said sternly.

"Yeah, yeah." Viktor rolls his eyes at the man. "You gave us all quite a scare back there, when you jumped off the balcony. If it wasn't for Justin's sharp eyes spying your run to the tree, I think we would have lost you."

"You say that, like it was a bad thing." Clik said disappointedly, then he adds under his breath, "But I was trying to lose you."

"So anyway, you've met Justin, leader of the Mavericks army and Tuta, Dr. Huan's apprentice." Viktor counts the people off on his fingers. "I'm Viktor, a mercenary like yourself."

"We are nothing alike, bear-man." Clik says rudely.

"I'll let that one slide." Viktor give a small glare. "This is Jason. You know, Pohl's brother."

"You say that like I knew who this Pohl person was." Clik said in a cold tone.

"Pohl was the boy who was with you and Viktor back at the mercenary fort." Jason says angrily, charging at Clik with clenched fists. "He died with the fort by Blight's hands."

"Jason, easy." Viktor gets between the two men. It takes almost all his strength to keep the angry man from attacking the other.

"I'm…sorry." Clik face turned red with embarrassment, before it turned to stone. "I'm sorry about your brother, but I've never met the kid. I've never been to this fort you speak of." He turns to Kinnison. "Let's go, you said I have work to do." Clik turns to walk on. Kinnison, Justin and Shiro follow after him. They could hear the argument between men behind them.

"Why don't we use that 'good trick' of yours and knock sense back into him." Jason grumbled.

"That's not going to solve anything and it's going to want him to stay further away from us." Viktor tells the angry man. "Just get your temper in check and we'll follow after them."

"So as Archery Captain, what am I suppose to do." Clik asks when they come to the dojo.

"Well…uh…" Kinnison rubs the back of his head. He is unsure of what Flik's regular routine was.

"You monitor the men as they practice their aiming and shooting." Teresa says as she opens the door. "Hello Sir Clik, how are you this morning?"

"I'm ok." Clik says with some surprise. "You're the first person to just say my name with out hesitation."

"Does that upset you?" Teresa steps to the side and allows the group to enter.

"Not really, but I'm confuse. That's all." Clik enters the room, followed by Kinnison, Shiro, and Justin. Viktor and Jason come running in a few minutes later. It seem that Viktor managed to get Jason to calm down.

"The men are ready and waiting for your inspection." Teresa leads them to the battalion of archers standing at attention. Bows by their side, the men stood up straight at an arm's length apart from the man next to him, and looking forward.

"Uh…" Clik is unsure of his first move. He walks up and down the ranks, looking at each solider. He feels eye follow him as he pass, but look forward as he comes near. At one point Clik stops and picks up the bow from one of the men in the back row corner. He plucks the string. "Um…nice and uh…tight." Clik hands the bow back to the man. "Nice work."

"THANK YOU SIR!!" The man shouts back at him. It surprise Clik so much that he stumbled over to the guy next to soldier who shout. That caused that man to fall over into the soldier next to him and so on in a human domino affect. Soon every one of the men in the battalion, save for the man that startled Clik were on the floor.

"Oh, my gosh." Clik jumps to his feet and starts to try to help the man he knock over up. "I'm sooo sorry." Kinnison looked confused, Teresa looked panicked, and Justin was in a corner writing in his book. Viktor and Jason were holding their sides, trying not to laugh. When everyone was back on his feet and the battalion was back into order, Clik hurried back to where Teresa and Kinnison stood. "Uh…now what?" He whispers.

"Now you test their aiming skills." Teresa said, pointing at the four targets that were lined up at the far end of the dojo.

"Uh…right." Clik turns back to the men. "Ok men…uh…target practice." The men quickly assemble themselves in four lines, facing the targets. The first line shoots a volley of arrows, and then moves to the end of the line for the next line to fire. Clik just stands there and watches.

"Go over and talk to the men." Teresa urges, giving Clik a slight push forward.

"What?!" Clik looked at Teresa with surprise. "What do you mean? You mean give them advice?" He would have preferred to say where he was.

"You know…watch us." Teresa goes over to one man who was too slack with his arm and tells him how to readjust himself. The man nods and was able to hit a bull's eye. Kinnison pulls another man to the side and proceeds to tell him that his aim is too low and must higher it to hit its mark. Clik is absolutely confused.

"Why am I Archery Captain? It's plain as day that these people know what they are doing?" Clik asks Viktor and Jason. The two men just shrug. "You're a lot of help." Clik snorted.

"Perhaps Sir Clik would like to show his skills with a bow and arrow." Teresa says, seeing as Clik was not moving towards the men. "It would help the men to understand what the proper technique would be and how it should be used."

"Uh…ok." Clik was a bit hesitating at the idea, but he moves toward the targets and brings out his bow and an arrow.

"Maybe a little competition to help boost moral? Best out of three?" Teresa urges Kinnison forward.

"I'm up for it, if you are." Clik says.

"Um…ok." Kinnison nods. He turns back to whispers to Teresa. "Won't it push Sir Flik back if I out show him in an archery contest?"

"I know how Sir Flik likes competition. He might come out if is honor was at stake." Teresa whispers back and Kinnison nods. He walks over to the targets also, pulls out his bow and an arrow. Both competitors notched their arrows before letting them fly. The arrows zipped through the air and hit a bull's eye. The men cheer for Kinnison and their captain. Again both competitors pull out an arrow, notched it, take aim, and let it go. The arrows fly again to hit a perfect mark again. Men cheer and the others looked on with interest. Once more arrows were flew through the air, only to hit their mark once more. The men roar and Teresa declares the match a draw.

"Wow. That felt great. I haven't had competition in a long time." Clik says with a laugh. "I don't want it to end. Let's have another, but this time, with moving objects."

"Wh…? Well…ok." Teresa was taken back. "What did you have in mind for this competition?" Clik whispers in her ear and she draws back from him in shock. "Sir Clik, are you serious?" He nods and she shrugs. She beckons Kinnison to follow her as she walks back to Viktor and Jason. Justin joins them a few seconds after closing his notebook. Teresa talks to them in a low voice and Viktor burst out laughing.

"Leave it to a twisted mind to think something like that up." Viktor slaps his knee hard. "Question is, would the men go for it?" He manages to choke out after another belly laugh.

"I…I think so, but I'm surprise at this." Teresa moves over to the men and talks with them. The men looked at each other then back at Teresa. All she could do was shrug.

Minutes later Viktor, Hoi, Justin, Tuta, and Stallion were lined up outside the dojo with burlap sacks on, holes cut out for arms and head. Different object on the heads and tied to the bottom back of the sack. Viktor had a cotton ball glued to his back bottom sack and donuts tied to his head, Hoi had a couple pieces of white string tied to the bottom, tree leaves painted white and a cone on his head. Tuta had a gray piece of string tied to his bottom and tree leaves painted gray on his head. Justin had a feather duster tied to his bottom and a rubber glove on his head. Stallion had a white cotton ball glued to the bottom of him and paper strips glued to sticks on his head. None of the people dress were amused, especially Viktor. It was a good laugh, up till the point that he was picked for this. Jason and the archers on the other hand were having a ball, laughing their heads off. Kinnison was still unsure what was going on. Teresa came out between the dressed up people and the two competing archers.

"Here is the points system." Teresa said, after she quite everyone down with her hands. "Each person that is dress, was picked do to his speed and agility." She points at each one as she calls out the points, starting with Viktor, "The…ahem…bear is worth 10 points, because he is the slowest and has the least agility." She had pointed to the Hoi, "Next is the unicorn, second slowest and in agility, is worth 20 points. The rat is 30, though slow but good agility." She had pointed to Tuta. Next was Justin, "The rooster who is second fastest is 50." Last was Stallion, "And the rabbit the fastest and most agile of them all, is worth 150." Teresa hands two quivers of arrows out, one went to Kinnison and the other went to Clik. "There are 20 arrows, each coated with different color chalk. Yellow chalked arrows for Kinnison and red ones for Sir Clik. You both have 15 minutes to fire all 20 arrows. Any arrow left in quivers at the end of 15 minutes is a 10-point penalty. At the end of the 15 minutes the spots will be checked and points tallied. The one with the most points wins."

By this time a large crowd had come around to see what was going on. They all moved out of the way when it looked like the contest was about to start. "The 15 minute starts," Teresa raised a white handkerchief and then dropped it. "NOW!"

The five dressed up people ran in different directions. Clik and Kinnison took off a second after. Each one pulling arrow after arrow out of their quivers, notching them, and taking aim at the animal of their choice. There was never a miss, but it was unknown to everyone where those arrows were going at all times. Viktor was ignored off the bat, because he was too slow to be of any contest. Though Hoi was keeping good speed, it seemed that he too was ignored. The ones that were favored among the competitors were Tuta, Justin, and Stallion, because of their speed and agility. But Stallion, true to his speed, seems too fast for anyone to take aim at. Most people felt that only elves would have the luck of hitting him. Bets went all around on who would win and who would be hit the most.

Soon the 15 minutes were over and the five dressed up people were brought back to tally the score. 20 hits were counted for Kinnison: 10 on Justin, 9 on Tuta, and 1 on Stallion the rabbit. 19 were counted for Clik. 10 on Justin, 8 on Tuta, and 1 on Stallion. Now there was just one problem, there were no arrows left in Clik's quiver and people were sure there was no misses. So where was the last arrow mark? Clik walked up to the back of Stallion and lifted his ponytail. There was a red mark on the back of his neck. That meant that Clik won with 1040 points to Kinnison's 920. All were surprised by Clik's marksmanship.

"I knew Captain Flik was good, but not that good." One archer said to another.

"I never knew anyone to match or eve best Kinnison's skill." The archer whispered back.

"That was a good game." Clik said, holding a hand out to Kinnison. "You had me going there. I didn't think I would have made that last shot."

"Um…yeah." Kinnison took the hand and shook it.

"So now what?" Clik turned back to Teresa.

"Um…I think that will be all…for now." Teresa was unsure of what should happen next. "It's now noon, why don't you accompany Sir Viktor and Jason to Hai Yo's for some lunch?"

"You owe me a big lunch, Red." Viktor said as he stormed over, tossing off the donuts and burlap sack at the same moment.

"Awww. Is the being bear mad?" Jason teased.

"Would you like to have nothing but mash potatoes for the rest of this war?" Viktor threaten.

"Come on." Clik laughed, "I'll make a nice lunch for all of us."

**That Evening**

Lunch, to Viktor and Jason's surprise was delicious. Afterwards they tried to get Clik to do what should be done as a general of the Mavericks army, but Clik had other things in mind. He wanted to wonder castle. It seemed like he was looking for something, but wouldn't tell the Viktor and Jason what it was. In the end, the two men had to give in to touring and introducing people to Clik. Justin and Tuta tried to follow while being out of sight at the same time. Unfortunately, they had to stop to explain to so many people what was going on, that they soon lost track of the three of them. In the end the two young men ended up giving what notes they had to Shu and Dr. Huan. Course they had to wait for Dr. Huan and Shu to laughed when they got to the part about the Tuta being stuck in the sleeping back, or being mistaken for a nut. Shu and Dr. Huan laughed especially long when they got to the part about the archery contest. When the two elder men were done, they excused the Justin and Tuta with new notebooks. Nina, thanks to Nanami and Chaco was nowhere to be seen. But Viktor and Jason couldn't help but wonder how they kept her way that day.

The day ends with the three men being in Leona's bar. Clik didn't seem to like anything stronger than a weak glass of wine to drink and was nursing it long. Too long, to the annoyance of the other two men. Viktor decided to hatched a plan with Jason that would guarantee them a good night's drinking and a late morning tomorrow. Slowly they would slip some hard liquor into Clik's cup so that he didn't know he was drinking it till it was too late. Unfortunately for Clik, he couldn't hold his liquor. His face turned red, he felt suddenly warm, and tired. Before Viktor and Jason even brought themselves to a nice buzz, Clik was out like a torch light in a windstorm. They contemplated leaving there to sleep on the table, but with the threat of Leona they moved him to his room to sleep it off.


	5. Ninauseating Day

**Ninauseating Day**

Nina was up at eight o'clock preparing breakfast for her Sir Flik. When things were set and ready to go, she was out of her room. Nina ran from her room to the barracks where she knew her Sir Flik slept. She would be ready by his door to take him by the arm and drag him back to her room. But when Nina got there, she was surprise to find Viktor and Jason pounding on his door. '_What's going on?_' She wonders and then sees them enter. Nina decides to move in for a closer look, she knew her Sir Flik would never need a wake up call such as this, even after a hard night's drinking. '_Maybe he's sick. Maybe he's dying._' She ducks behind a potted plant near the stairs when she hears footsteps coming up them. They belonged to Tuta and she watches as he, with his medicine bag, goes to Flik's room. Now Nina is really worried about Flik's health and creeps as close as she could to hear what was going on in the room. She hears about Tuta's morning and where her target is now. Pleased that he is ok, Nina sets off for her destination, the kitchen. She runs down a flight of stairs, hooks a left and crashes right into…Nanami and Chaco. "Hey, watch where you're going."

"Watch where I'm going? What about you?" Chaco retorted back.

"Out of my way." Nina waved her hand to make room to get by. "My Sir Flik's breakfast is getting cold."

"About Flik…" Nanami started to say.

"What about him?" Nina snapped. "Never mind, I know where he is. He's at the restaurant, but don't you get any ideas." She starts down the hallway.

"No, wait." Nanami spies Viktor, Jason, and Tuta starting to come down the stairs. "You have to go this way." She pulls Nina down another flight of stairs. "The…maids are cleaning the hallway. It's all wet. We have to take the long way." Nanami looks at Chaco for help.

"Uh…yeah." The winger sighs. "We have to go this way." He takes Nina's other arm and the two of them drag the blonde down to the bottom floor.

"Unhand me you…creeps." Nina wrenches her arms free. "You can't keep us apart. My Sir Flik and I, it's destiny that we should be together. Destiny I tell you." A tinkle in her eye appears. Nanami and Chaco roll theirs, which was a mistake. Because in that split second they took their eyes off her, she was running down the hallway. They chase after her as she run down room after room and up the stair to the restaurant. They reached Nina in time to see a caped person jumped over the edge of the balcony restaurant. Nina screamed and fainted at the sight of her 'true love' leaping to his demise. Nanami and Chaco grab an arm each and drag her back out into the hallway.

"Now what?" Chaco asks Nanami.

"I have a plan." Nanami tells him.

"Some how I find no comfort in that." Chaco sighs.

"Its ok, its ok." Nanami waves a hand in confidence. She pulls a small vial out of her pocket. "We'll use this."

"What is it?" Chaco asked.

"Hypno potion." Nanami seemed please with herself.

"What does it do?" Chaco looks at the vial with curiosity.

"Makes the person who drinks it, believe anything you tell them." Nanami explains. "And when it's over, they won't remember a thing."

"That's great." Chaco seemed impressed. "We'll just tell her that Sir Flik isn't here right now and have the rest of the day to do what we want."

"Well…" Nanami put her hands behind her back, looked at the ground and twisted her right toes in the floor. "It's not that easy."

"I should have known." Chaco gives a heavy sigh. "So what is this plan of our?" Nanami whispers it into his ear and he jumps back. "You have got to be kidding me. No way that's going to work."

"It will, it will. Trust me." Nanami slips Nina the potion and grabs an arm. "Let's get her out of the hall way and into the Meeting Hall. I have everything set up there." Chaco heaves another sigh and grabs the other arm.

Moments later, Nina wakes up in the Meeting Hall. "What…what happen?" Then she remembers. "Oh no. My Sir Flik has jumped to his death." She gets up to run out of the room when someone calls to her.

"Nina…my…(ahem)…love." She turns around to a tall, really tall man. His lower face is wearing a mask, on his head is a blue bandanna, and on the back is a blue cape. His legs wore the blue shin guards and a leg brace. His backside seems to be a bit lumpy under the cape and his abdominal area seems to be extra large. But it did not matter to her, for she knew who it was.

"Oh, my Sir Flik. You finally admit that you love me." Hearts seem to float around her head as Nina looks at him. A cloud of steamy mist seems to surround him as he stands in a heroic pose. Or as heroic a pose as could be mustered.

"Your legs are squeezing my head." His lower half seems to say.

"I can't help it. You move to much." He says to the lower half.

"Is there a problem my love?" Nina grabs his hand and pulls him. The man in blue almost falls forward. "Um…(ahem)…no. I am fine."

"Then why do you have a mask on?"

"I…caught a cold and didn't want to infect you."

"Oh no." Nina looks at him with worry in her eyes. "Then you must get some rest and plenty of soup." She pulls on his arm again and he clumsily moves forward.

"Hey, take it easy. Not so fast."

"Sir Flik, your lower half is talking."

"Um…that's just my stomach. I can't wait to get some of that soup."

"Of course." They come to the door and Nina looks at her love. "Oh…you seem taller."

"Uh…traveling can do that to you. Duck, duck."

"Where?" Nina looks around. "I don't see any ducks." She turns back to look at him and sees that he is already out the door, heading for the elevator. "Wait for me." Nina runs to catch up with him. "Let's not take the elevator my love." She pulls him toward the stairs. "Let's take the long way back to my room. The exercise might do your cold some good and it would be more romantic."

"What?!" Nanami says. "You have got to be kidding. Ow!" Chaco gave his claw foot a slight squeeze to get her to shut up.

"Your stomach is talking again." Nina points out.

"Uh…yeah." Chaco says as a sweatdrop slides down his side. "Flik better be grateful for this." He mutters under his voice.

"I knew we should have cut holes in the shirt." Nanami whispers. "I can't see a thing." Her feet trip on every step they meet.

"Do you know how weird it would look with holes in the shirt?" Chaco whispered back, he waves his free hand to stay balanced.

"And we don't look weird now?"

"This was your idea, don't forget."

"Are you enjoying talking to yourself?" Nina keeps a hold on his other hand. "Why not talk to me? Tell me…tell me something romantic to set the mood right."

"Uh…" Chaco searches his mind to say something nice to say. "All the mirrors in the castle should be covered so that they don't shatter when you look at them."

"What?" Nina turns and looks him in the eyes.

"It's your beauty that would shatter them." Nanami says quickly. "They would be jealous of your beauty and break themselves in a fit of it."

"Oh…" Nina blushes. "It would seem that your lower half is your better half Sir Flik."

"Boy did that not sound right." Chaco mutters.

"What?"

"Um…nothing. Are we there yet?"

"All most. Can't wait can you?" Nina gives him a sly look. Chaco gives a nerves cough. After stumbling over a couple more stairs and ducking another couple of doorways, they finally reach Nina's room.

"Finally, I can sit down." Nanami says with a sigh. "Your heavy."

"Oh, shut up." Chaco tells the Nanami. Nina has a seat across from the two of them. Noticing that her lover is towering over the table, though he is sitting, she picks up a bowl of rice and hands it to him. "Thank you."

"No problem." Nina takes a bowl for herself and they start to eat. Suddenly Chaco feels a shake, like a shiver.

"What are you doing?" The winger whispers down to Nanami.

"She's rubbing my leg with her foot." Nanami shivers again as she feels Nina slide a toe up her right knee. "Make her stop." Chaco tries hard to stifle a laugh. Thinking it was some kind of hint, Nina gets up and moves her chair closer. Both he and Nanami gulp as Nina puts a hand around, what should be the waist. The blonde runs her fingers up and down what would be the back. This tickles Chaco's legs and he starts to giggles.

"You like it?"

"N…no. Please (giggle) stop."

"Oh, sure." Nina slips the tips of her fingers into his pants, feeling the crawl in Nanami's back. Nanami, caught by surprise shoots straight up and Chaco looses grip of his rice bowl. "Why Sir Flik, whatever could be the matter?" Nina tries to look innocent.

"You know exactly what the matter is." Nanami yells.

"What?" Nina looks at the lower half in shock.

"Uh…I have to go." Chaco says quickly and gives Nanami a nudge.

"Go? Go where?" Nina looks back up at the upper half.

"To…to the bathroom. Bad." Chaco squeezes his legs together to give another hint to Nanami.

"I don't know where the door is." Nanami tells him.

"Turn around, turn around. Forward, forward. Duc…" Chaco's head hits the top of the door way and he grabs his nose. "Ow." He falls back and Nanami rushes out the door. Nina was left to sit there, unknown as to what was happening.

"He sure is acting strange today." Nina waits awhile. An hour goes by…then two…three. She realizes that he's not coming back and runs out of her room to look for him. "Sir Flik? Sir Flik? Where did you go?" She runs into Hanna, "Have you seen Sir Flik?"

"Sir Clik? No I haven't." Hanna starts to walk away quickly.

"No, no. Sir Flik." Nina chases after Hanna. "You know, the man with a blue cape and bandanna."

"There is no Flik." Hanna tries to get around Nina, "There is a Sir Clik. A man with a red cape and not bandanna."

"There…is…no…Sir…Flik." Nina's eyes had glazed over and she had a blank stare. "There…is…a…Sir…Clik." She talks in a hypnotic voice.

"Are you ok Nina?" Hanna waves a hand in Nina's face.

"What? Oh!" Nina shakes her head. "Well if Sir Clik is not here, then I'll be going." Nina takes off, leaving Hanna in a confused state. "I have to find Sir Clik, but I should get him something nice." She stops and thinks about it, then snaps her fingers. "I know. He's missing his bandanna. I get him a new one. A nice new red bandanna." She runs down to Han's armor shop.

"Well hello Nina." Han greets her at the door. "What can I do for you?"

"I want to get a new bandanna for my love." Nina said cheerfully.

"Oh. Well you're in luck." Han laughs. "We just got a shipment of some nice new blue bandannas. I'm sure he would like one. Made of the best material and dyed is superb." He kissed his fingers like he was a chef serving a meal.

"But I'm not looking for a blue one. I'm looking for a red one." Nina looked at him confused. "My Sir Clik wears red."

"Sir Clik?" Han was confused. "Who is Sir Clik?"

"Oh, you know who he is." Nina waves a hand at him. "He's the Archer Captain and Calvary Leader."

"Um…that would be Sir Flik, Nina." Hans tell her.

"Sir Flik?" Nina looks at Hans with confusion.

"Yes. You know Sir Flik." Hans reminds Nina. "You've been obsessing about him since you've come here."

"Um…yeah." Nina scratches the back of her head. For some strange reason she can't seem to think straight. She leaves Han's shop in a bit of a daze. Maybe she needs some fresh air. Nina walks out to the garden and has a seat under a tree near the ranch. Yuzu rides up to the gate on one of her sheep.

"Hello Nina."

"Hello…"

"What's the matter?"

"I can't seem to find Sir Flik."

"Sir Clik? Oh, he's being given a tour of the castle."

"Sir Clik?"

"Yeah, didn't you know? He's new here."

"But…I thought he's been around for awhile. Wasn't he here the beginning of the war?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Oh. Well…um…I have to go." Nina gets up and walks to the Dr. Huan. "Maybe the war is getting to me. Maybe I need to get some help."

Meanwhile, elsewhere 

"I can't believe we lost Nina." Nanami whined as she and Chaco walked in Main North Wing. "We shouldn't have got to watch that contest."

"Aw…we don't need to be by her side all the time." Chaco hitches the blue shirt up higher, so he won't trip over it. They stop by the Guardian Deity. "Besides, it's your fault we didn't get back to Nina's room after the contest."

"My fault!!" Nanami jumps in front of Chaco. "All I wanted to do was be the upper half for a while."

"But you know it won't work that way. My wings will rip the pants."

"Well, we've tailed Clik everywhere and there's no sign of Nina anywhere." Nanami looks ahead and spies the young blonde coming their way. "Quick, around the corner. You have to get back on my shoulders."

"Whoa, hang on." Chaco yells as Nanami is yanking him. He climbs back on to her shoulder and drops the shirt over her head. Then he readjusts the bandanna and ties the mask back on. "Geez, I hate this thing."

"Hang on, here she comes." Nanami whispers. When Nina comes close, Nanami has them step out in front of her.

"Nina?" Chaco says. "Where have you been? I've been looking all over for you."

"Oh, Sir Clik." Nina jumps back. "You startled me."

"Sir Clik? Who is this Sir Clik?"

"Why, you are my lord."

"No, I am Flik. You know, the Blue Thunder."

"Flik?" Nina looks at him. "Blue Thunder?" She shakes her head. "No…no. There is no Flik, there is only Sir Clik." She pushes back Chaco and Nanami. "If you excuse me sir, I'm looking for my Sir Clik."

"Oh, no. Something gone wrong." Nanami whispers.

"Yeah, it went wrong when I started listening to you." Chaco whispers back. "Hold it." He yells out to Nina. The young blonde turns around and sees the strange person comes to her. "Wait my love."

"My love? You love me?" Nina rubs her forehead with the tips of her fingers. "No, I am sorry. But I love someone else. Forgive me Flik for I have never met you."

"That's it! I will not stand by and have some stranger steal my love from me. I will go and kill this rival of mine." Chaco pounds his right side of his chest with his left fist and points his right index finger in the air. "I'm off."

"What are you doing?" Nanami whispers up to Chaco. "Have you gone nuts?"

"She believes that she loves Clik and never met Flik." Chaco whisper back. "This is too good to pass up."

"But…"

"Trust me, she won't remember any of this anyway. Now move forward, anywhere." Chaco prods. Nanami sighed and started towards the tavern.

"N...no. You can't kill him." Nina chases after them and grabs the cape, almost yanking Chaco right off Nanami's shoulders.

"I must…" Chaco yanks the cape back from her. "I must fight for what I believe is right."

"I can't let you hurt him." Nina runs in front of him.

"Can you do this somewhere else?" Luc says in a cold voice. They seemed to be standing right in front of him and the Stone Tablets.

"Stay out of this knave. This is a battle of the heart." Chaco whips the cape around him and nudges Nanami to go forward.

"…." Luc raises an eyebrow.

"You must do something Luc." Nina plead to him. She grabs his shirt back. "This Flik person is off to kill my Sir Clik."

"Sir Clik?" Luc looks at the Stone Tablet. "There's no Clik here. Just Flik."

"What?" Nina looks at the Tablet. "It can't be…wait, he's new. The name just hasn't appeared yet."

"The name appears once a person has been recruited." Luc says sternly.

"Never mind the tablet. I am off to slay he who has wrongful stolen my lady's heart." Nanami starts to move forward again.

"No, I won't have it." Nina grabs the back of Chaco's shirt and pulls him back. He falls right off Nanami's shoulders and hits the ground hard, the wind knocked out of him. "Oh no…I…I'm sorry." Nina sinks to her knees. "I didn't mean to kill him."

"Kill him?" Luc looks at Chaco on the ground, then Nanami with pants up to her shoulders.

"Yes, I killed him." Nina sobbed. "I split him in half to save the one I love. My hands are tainted with the blood of injustice. I can never touch he who is innocent again."

"Oh, no…it's ok. It's ok." Nanami rushes over to Nina and kneels next to her. "You didn't kill anyone."

"Oh my…" Nina's face turns white. "His lower half is talking to me." She scoots away. "His ghost is haunting me for not returning his love. Oh, what have I done?"

"Hey Nina, it's cool." Chaco gets up and walks over to Nina.

"Oh, no. His upper half is moving toward me with no feet." Nina jumps to her feet and runs. Chaco and Nanami runs after her, telling her it's ok. Luc is left to stand there trying to figure things out.

"Nina…open the door." Nanami pounds on Nina's door some time later. "You didn't kill anyone." There is sobbing coming from inside the room.

"When does this thing wear off?" Chaco asks her as he struggles to get the shirt and cape off.

"I don't know…" Nanami thinks about it. "End of the day."

"When in the end of the day? When the sun goes down or when the sun comes up the next day?"

"Soon I think. The sun is going down now." Nanami looked out the window. Chaco looks out the window also as the room gets darker. A man comes to light the torches. "Hey, do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"The sobbing stop." Nanami presses her head close to the door.

"So now what?" Chaco looks at her. Nanami shrugs. "Wait, I have an idea." Chaco flies out the window. Nanami waits and the door suddenly opens.

"Oh, Nina. You ok?" But it wasn't Nina at the door. "Chaco?"

"I came in through the window. Nina's passed out on the bed."

"What?" Nanami rushes into the room. "Nina? Nina?" She shakes Nina violently. "Come on, wake up."

"Huh?" Nina raises her head and looks at Nanami. Nanami breathes a sigh of relief. "What are you doing in my room? Never mind. I'm tired and I must get some sleep, so I can get up to make breakfast for my Sir Flik."

"Flik? Did you say Flik?" Nanami get into Nina's face.

"Yes, I did. Now go away."

"Don't you remember anything about today?"

"Sure I do." Nanami and Chaco look at each other nervously. "I got up, made breakfast for Sir Flik, but I couldn't find him all day. Then I remembered that he's out on a trip and won't be back for awhile so I decide to turn in, in hopes that the days will go by faster and he will return." Nanami and Chaco breathe a sigh of relief. "Can you leave now?"

"Oh, right." Nanami and Chaco leave the room hastily. "Well everything worked out ok…didn't it?" Chaco glare at her. "Ok, ok. So we made fools of ourselves, but we kept her way from him, didn't we?"

"Tomorrow, I come up with the plan." Chaco says.


	6. Day Two

**Day Two**

Viktor woke at the crack of noon that day. There was a song in his heart and pounding in his head. A light tap on the door told him it was time to get up. He does his usual morning routine of washing his face and slipping into some clean clothes. Then he goes to open the door. It creaks loudly and it leaves ringing in his ears. "Must you be so loud this afternoon?" Viktor hears his drink companion whisper. "Do you know how much my head hurts right now?"

"Nobody told you to match me drink for drink last night." Viktor whispers back. "There was no twisting of the arm. Now hand over the stuff."

"Here." Jason hands Viktor the small vial of purple stuff and holds another in his hand. "Cheers." They both raise the vial up and downed the contents.

"You're late in waking me up." Viktor tosses the vial behind him and it hits Tuta on the head.

"Ow." Tuta rubs his head as he comes over to the two men, with the vial in his hand. "I believe this is yours."

"You camped out here again last night?" Viktor takes the vial back.

"Yeah." Tuta points to the brown mummy sleeping bag folded by the door. "There hasn't been any movement this morning."

"Heh, it worked." Jason gives a thumb up to Viktor. "The stuck up couldn't rise up early with a heavy head."

"Well, it time to get up now. Camus and Miklotov must wonder where he is." Viktor pounds on the door of Flik's room.

"Oooowwww." A muffled voice cries. "Go away."

"Get up in there Clik." Viktor shouts. "It's time to get up."

"I don't feel good. Go away."

"It's just a hang over. It'll go away. Staying in bed with nothing to eat won't make you feel any better."

"Stop yelling, you making my head worse. I think I'm going to throw up."

"But I'm not yelling." Viktor opens the door, Jason stand behind him. "It just sound that way, cause of your head."

"PERVERT!!" Clik shouts suddenly and throws a pillow at Viktor. "GET OUT!!" He winces with the shout.

"What?! What did you say?" Viktor is stunned.

"You heard me." Clik quiets down, because the yelling was too much. "How dare you come into my room uninvited." He pulls the sheet up over his chest and reaches for something else to throw.

"Now what just a minute." Viktor say, waving his hands in defense. "Don't you get…" He ducks as a book goes flying at his head, Jason dives out of the way. "…wrong idea."

"Out, out!" Clik grabs a lamp and throws it. Viktor pulls the door close with a slam as lamp comes at him. The lamp hits the door and crashes on the floor. "Owwww." Clik cries. "My head really hurts now."

"We can help you, if you just let us in." Jason says, after peeling himself off the floor.

"You can help me, by going away." Clik sobs.

"We have something that will make your head feel a hell of a lot better." Viktor creaks the door open a crack. "Believe me, it's worth taking. I've had many mornings like you're having right now." A book hits the door, telling him that Clik knew the door was open and he closes it quickly.

"What is going on here?" Camus yells from the stairs. "Miklotov, Lord Justin and I have been waiting for Sir Flik for an hour now." He walks over to the three people.

"We're just having a hard time getting him out of bed. That's all." Jason tells him.

"Well, just go in there and shake him up." Camus was annoyed on the fact that he and Miklotov were kept waiting by the stables for so long. He grabs the doorknob and threw the door open.

"Wait! You didn't want to do that." Jason says frantically.

"Why not?" Camus steps into the room. "Now Sir Clik, it is time for your riding review." He says sternly.

"PERVERT!!" Clik screeches once again. He was now up splashing water on his face when Camus walked in on him.

"Sir Clik?" Camus is confused. "Sir Clik…put that down. Sir!" Camus had to duck as a water basin was hurled at him, along with the matching pitcher. Jason found himself on the floor once again as he had to jump out of the way. But this time he wasn't alone as Viktor had to hit the deck also. The basin and pitcher flew through the air and hit the wall across from Flik's room. "Quite an arm you have there." Camus says as he straightens himself up in time to receive a kick to the chest, causing him to fly back and the door slams shut once more.

"Go away…" Clik sobs once more. "You all are not helping."

"Maybe we should leave." Tuta said, after writing every event down in his book.

"No, no. He'll be ok." Viktor says. He helps Jason to his feet. In turn Jason helps Camus to his feet. Camus rubs his chest and coughs a bit to get wind back into his lungs.

"I think…I'll go back to waiting for you at the stables." Camus says as he stumbles to the stairs.

"Look, just get dress and we'll give you something that will cure your hang over." Viktor talks to the door.

"There's no such thing as a hang over cure." Clik's muffled voice says back.

"Yes there is." Viktor runs his fingers through his hair and shoots a confused look at Jason.

"What do he mean, there's not such thing? He help prefect the stuff." Jason shoots the same look back. The door opens to a very sloppily dressed Clik. His cape is lopsided, hair's a mess, and he has bags under his eyes.

"What is this cure you talk of?" Clik demands. Jason holds out a vial of purple stuff. After taking the vial, Clik looks at it before giving it a sniff. He scrunches up his nose. "Stuff smells nasty."

"Hold your nose and shoot." Viktor says. "Don't sip it. Makes things worse." Clik raises an eyebrow and then does as he's told. In almost an instance, his face turns green. The vial drops from his hand and shatters on the floor next to the broken lamp. He does a full body shake and his eyes looked like they would come out of their sockets. Viktor and Jason can't help but laugh at the pour guy's misfortune.

"What…what is that stuff?" Clik manages to choke out after some heavy breathing. "It…it's horrible."

"It's call 'Praiser." Jason says through choked laughter.

"Why is it called that?" Clik proceeds to wipe his tongue, in the hopes to make the taste go away.

"Because you start to praise everything under sun when the hang-over is gone and that you don't need drink a lot of the stuff to make it go away." Viktor wipes some tears from his eyes.

"You guys drank it, like it was nothing." Tuta points out. "How can you take the stuff?"

"When you've been drink it for years, you get use to the stuff." Viktor says in a matter-of-fact voice. "First time drinkers can't get over the taste."

"Wouldn't have to take the stuff if you guys didn't slip any liquor in my drink." Clik says coldly. He readjusts his cape and smoothes out his hair.

"Never mind that. It's all in the past." Viktor puts a hand on Clik's shoulder. "Come on now. We've left Camus and Miklotov waiting long enough." He tries to lead Clik to the stairs.

"Why do I need to go see them?" Clik brushes Viktor's hand off.

"For your riding review." Jason says, pushing Clik along.

"Stop pushing, I'm going. But I don't see why I have to have a riding review." Clik grumbles.

"You need it, cause you're in the Calvary." Viktor points out.

"I'm in the what?" Clik looks at him confused. "Let me get this straight. I just get here and already I've been given positions. Are you guys that bad off that you would do that?"

"No, you were assigned those positions because of your skills." Jason says.

"Then if it's for my skills, you guys have not done your homework. Especially if I need a riding review." Clik says.

"Don't forget that today, Ridley starts the leadership review also." Tuta comments.

"Leadership review?" Clik raises an eyebrow. "What kind of army is this?"

**Later that night**

There was an emergency meeting in the Meeting Hall that night about Flik's condition. Camus, Miklotov, Nanami, Justin, Ridley, Shu, Apple, Dr. Huan, Tuta, Teresa, Kinnison, Shiro, Freed Y, Viktor, and Jason were all there. "It is only day two…" Shu begins and the pause before he starts up again, "but I have the feeling that this isn't really Flik."

"What do you mean?" Viktor looks surprised at Shu. "It's Flik, I know it is."

"According to this." Shu opens one of the notebooks. "He's been seen raising in the early morning. Earlier than usual and jumping out windows?"

"Well…"

"He not only has he taken up gymnastics and martial arts, but he seems to have mastered them also."

"Maybe he's been practicing on the side to better himself."

"He jumped off the balcony and up a tree to run away from you."

"Well, anyone would do that when they see a bear-man come at him." Jason joked. Viktor shot him a glare.

"His marksmanship is equal to Kinnison's, when before he couldn't even keep up."

"Practice. He's been practicing." Viktor tries to sound convincing. "And you have to admit, that archery contest was pure genius."

"Yeah, special the part where you had to dress up like a bear." Jason laughed. Viktor this time, smacked him upside the head.

"He can't stay on a horses." Shu continues.

"Ok. Now that was funny." Viktor laughs. Everyone looks at him, Camus, Miklotov, Jason, Justin, and Tuta. "Ok, you see." He chokes back the laughter. "They put him on the horses, see and Flik looks at them like he hasn't got a clue. The tell him to make the horse go. He shrugs and kicks it. The horse goes all right, but Flik's not on it any more. He's flat on the ground looking at the sky. Then he asks, 'What did I do wrong?'"

"Oh, don't forget about how he had to make the horse go over the fence." Jason butted in. "See, once Flik got use to making the horse go and not throw him, Camus thought it would be alright to have him make the horse jump. So he tells Flik to head the horse at a gallop for a low fence. They come to the fence, the horse comes to a complete stop and throws Flik over the fence into a mud puddle." Both Jason and Viktor are in fits of laughter now.

"Moving on." Shu says sternly and the two men stop laughing. "When giving a one-handed sword and shield to spar with Freed Y, he throws the sword away and hides behind the shield. But when allowed to fight with the weapon he brought back with him, best Freed Y, Viktor, and Jason in three one-on-one battles."

"So he's move up to a better sword. So what?" Viktor looks at the strategist.

"The sword didn't have a name on it." Shu looks straight back. There were gasps heard throughout the room.

"Maybe he hadn't had time to get the name put on?"

"Then there's the running of the Nina." Shu looks at Chaco and Nanami, they looked back at him nervously.

"Well, we thought if we told her, she might stay way from him." Chaco says with nervous laugh. "Who knew she would just want to hunt him down even more?"

"But he can get way from her fast and better than before." Nanami added in hastily.

"He jumped up on the ceiling and walked the cross-beams of the theater. Then he jumped out another window, causing fifteen girls to faint." Chaco and Nanami laughed nervously. "Then there's the fact that his hearing has heighten and is unnerving other people."

"What do you mean?" Jason asks.

"Every time someone walks into the room, he knows exactly who they are and says hi, without even turning around. Justin and Tuta can't follow him around anymore, because he knows they're there and demands to know why."

"Uh…"

"Then there's his attitude." Shu adds as a last thing.

"I admit that he's been rather cold at times." Viktor rubs the back of his head.

"Not that one. He's been acting a little feminine of late." Shu slams the book closed. "He called you and Camus a pervert?"

"Well…"

"He thinks squirrels are cute."

"Um…they can be."

"He screams like a girl, hold his clothes like a girl, he some times even walks like one."

"Maybe his hung out with Simone and Vincent to much." Jason says.

"Ok. So he's a little off. But you said so yourself. It's cause he had a blow to the head or a shock to the system. He'll get better soon." Viktor looks at Dr. Huan for an answer, but all the doctor could do was shrug.

"A little off. He's the complete opposite of what he use to be." Shu looks to the others to see them nod in approval.

"It's him. I know it's him."

"How do you know that person is our Flik? How do we that it not some Highland spy among us, stealing valuable information?" Shu looks at Viktor, then turns to look at Justin with concern. "Lord Justin, we must to something about this."

"I agree with Shu." Justin looks at Viktor gravely. "Unless you have some hard evidence that points otherwise."

"I do." Viktor brings out, what looks to be a golden locket and fob. "I admit, I was having my doubts too, but then I snatched this from him." He pops open the locket. There is a small portrait of Flik making a peace sign and Odessa squeezing his neck. Their smiles were bright and warming. "He doesn't think anyone knows about this, but I do. He carries this on the inside of his vest, over his heart. This and his sword are the two things he cherish most, cause they remind him of her." Everyone in the room is silent.

"You know, when he realizes you stole that from him, he's going to kill you." Jason pointed out.

"If it brings our Flik back, so be it." Viktor says as he closes the locket and put it back in his pocket.


	7. Day Three, He's Back

**Note:** And now the moment you all have been waiting for.

**Day Three, He's Back**

Viktor and Jason grumbles as they sit cross legged in the dojo at the early morning. Their heads were in their right hands, leaning their right elbow on their right leg, and eyes were drooping. They didn't get to have their night's drinking, because Clik was wise to them and wouldn't let them anywhere near his drinks. Not that they would have been able to slip him anything anyway, because Nina had come into the tavern to look for him and he jumped to the cross beams to enjoy his drink before going to bed. "You guys don't have to be here if you don't want to." Clik yells down from the roof. He had just climbed a role that hung from the ceiling for climbing exercising.

"That's what you think." Jason mumbles through his fingers.

"Thanks to those ears, Tuta and Justin can't watch him anymore." Viktor mumbles back.

"Why do they have to watch me anyway?" Clik slides down the rope and lands in front of the two them. He puts his hands on his hip and his right leg crossed in front of his left.

"Don't stand like that." Viktor grumbles.

"I'll stand however I like." Clik says with humph sound afterwards. Then he sticks his nose up in the air and walks out of the dojo. Viktor and Jason scramble to their feet to chase after him. "As much as I would like the escort, you don't need to follow me any further." Clik puts a hand up to stop them from following him, once they came to the bath.

"Whatever, we'll meet you at the restaurant then. Don't be late." Jason stuffs his hands into his pockets and motions Viktor to go. Viktor grumbles a reply and the two take off. They were sitting opposite each other, out on the balcony and were sipping coffee, when Clik came in an hour later. He was clean, dressed in clean clothes, and looking quite refreshed. He has a plate of toast balanced on his head, holds a plate of eggs in his right and pitcher of apple juice in his left.

"Should learn to wake up early and exercise. Could do you a world of good." Clik commented. He places a plate of eggs and pitcher on the table, and then takes the plate of toast of his head to set on the table. After that, he takes a seat on the side between the two men. They grumble at his comment and help themselves to the food placed in front of them. "Juice would be much healthier than coffee. Coffee is addictive." Clik pours three glasses of apple juice and pushes two of the glasses towards the other men. They roll their eyes, but accept the juice anyway. The three eat in silence, till once more, Nina appears outside looking for Clik. Clik takes a last bite of eggs, downs the juice, and grabs a piece of toast before Nina could spot him. He gets ready to jump off the balcony once more, but Viktor grabs him by the arm.

"There' a meeting in the Meeting Room later this afternoon." The big man whispers to him. Clik nods, takes the toast in his mouth and brings a ribbon out from under his cape. As Nina runs after to him, he jumps off, using the ribbon to slow his fall and climb the rest of the way down. Nina looks over the balcony trying to note where he's going.

"Sort of feels like old times." Jason comments as he helps himself to some more eggs.

"Yeah."

"Think he'll get better?"

"Maybe."

"He will. My Sir Flik can beat anything." Nina clutches her hands together. Her eyes grow big and a star could be seen at the bottom of each one. "My Sir Flik is the best there is." Mist surrounds her as she sees him standing across from her; his arms wide open. His mouth moves to say, '_Nina, my all. I have come back to you._' She runs into his arms and he holds her close, kissing her forehead. "Oh don't ever go away again." Something brings her back to reality and she find that she hugging herself. Viktor and Jason are nowhere to be seen. They have taken off while she was imagining. "Well…" She goes off to look for Clik.

Later in the Meeting Hall, all the usual people were there: Camus, Miklotov, Justin Nanami, Pilika, Huan, Ridley, Viktor, Jason, Freed Y, Chaco, Fitcher, Shu, Apple, Teresa, and Shin. Shu was pacing the room. His face revealed his dislike. "Well, this will be his first meeting." Shu says gravely. "We better keep an eye on him."

"Come on. You still don't think he's a Highland spy do you." Viktor rolled his eyes.

"You did replace the locket, right?" Jason whispered to Viktor. Viktor nods and Jason pats him on the shoulder. "Good man. You'll live to see another day." Viktor chuckles.

"Never the less, we can't be too careful." Shu say. "We won't do anything till we know the facts." He tries to sound reassuring. The door opens slowly, everyone in the room tenses up. "Here he comes. Try to act natural."

"Hi gang. Guess who've I brought back with me." A man in a blue bandanna, shirt, cape, and black pants walks into the room. He places a Mangosh shield to the side of the door and straightens a one handed sword that was hanging by his side. Everyone in the room just stands there with their mouths wide open. "Geez. It's not like it's anything that big." Flik stands there and looks at everybody. "I mean it's great that he can come to visit, but you don't need to act so stunned."

"Are you alright, Sir Flik?" Dr. Huan walks up to him and checks his eyes.

"I'm fine." Flik takes a step back.

"Dr. Huan called him Flik. He responded to Flik." Nanami says jumping up and down.

"Why shouldn't I? That's my name." Flik has a confused look on his face. "Anyway the people I brought are…Viktor put me down!" Viktor had taken Flik up in a giant bear hug.

"Don't hog all of him." Nanami press between the two men, causing Viktor to have to put Flik back down on the ground, and then she gives Flik a squeeze as Pilika grabs a leg. "So glad you are back to yourself."

"Same here man." Jason gives a hard slap on Flik's back. Shu breathes a sigh of relief. The rest of the room cheers so loud, the glass shakes in the windows.

"What is going on here?" Flik pushes Nanami off and then shakes Pilika off. "Has everyone gone mad?"

"No, but you were." Viktor laughed. "But now you've come back to your senses. Couldn't stand the new you."

"The new me? Viktor have you been inhaling your ale instead of drinking it?"

"He's right Sir Flik." Dr. Huan says seriously. "You came back from your trip in different clothes, with different weapons, and with a different attitude."

"I came back? I just came back a couple minutes ago." Flik looks confused.

"Just came back?" Shu looked panicked. "Where have you been?"

"Gregminster. I've been staying at the McDohl's residence. Didn't you get my message?"

"He's been at the McDohl's residence the pass three days." Shun snaps out of it and gets serious. "Quick, gather all the soldiers in room. We have a spy among us."

"A spy. What's going on?" Flik looks around. "I come back from a little vacation and remembering to find this place under attack?"

"We're not under attack yet." Viktor looks stern. "Damn, I can't believe he fooled even me."

"Who? Who fooled you?"

"Excuse me, but did we come in at a bad time?" Gremio steps into the room, he followed by McDohl. "The Young Master and I were waiting to come in, but then there's the call for the guards."

"How should I know?" Flik shrugs as he looks at his two guests.

"Three days ago a man, matching your description, save for the color of his shirt and cape and with different weapons came here today." Shu explains. "We heard rumors that you were attack by bandits and thought you suffered from some mental or head injury. We've been working with this person in hope to make him back into you."

"A man looks like me?" Flik raises an eyebrow.

"Maybe…maybe Flik's got a twin brother?" Nanami asks hopefully, she doesn't believe a nice person like Clik could be a spy.

"But I don't have a twin brother." Flik shakes his head.

"Well, if it's a spy, he is uncanny." Viktor runs a hand through his hair, before looking his friend. "I thought for sure it was you. Not just facially, but the locket."

"Locket?" Flik's eyes open wide, he gets into Viktor's face. "You know about the locket?" He pulls out his sword.

"Uh…" Viktor gulps.

"It was nice knowing you Vik." Jason pats the bear-man on the shoulder.

"N…now Flik. Take it easy." Viktor backs away from the Blue Thunder.

"There is no time for this." Shu says so suddenly, that it startles to two men. "What matters right now, is that there is a spy among us and we need to deal with him. He will be here any minute." Flik nods, but does not sheath his sword. He stays by right side of the door and looks out as solider come in, then closes the door as to not raise suspicion. For some reason, Flik cannot shake the idea of somebody with his face and carrying the same locket as him here in the castle. '_Who is he?_' He wonders. '_What is he doing here?_'

Gremio escorts McDohl in and has him stay by Justin. He, Viktor and Jason bring out their weapons to protect the leader and former leader. Nanami join the three men to protect her brother. Everyone waits for the strange person they had among them to enter the Meeting Room. "Men, be ready." Shu orders. The soldiers bring out their swords and wait at the bottom of the stairs. The left side door open and everyone holds their breath as the red cape person enters the room. Flik jumps to the side of the guy who entered and brings his sword to the man's throat.

"Who are you and what is your business?" Flik demands. The man turns to look at Flik. Flik could not believe how he looks exactly like him.

"They…" The man points to the other people, "know me as Clik. But you…" Clik face is serious as he stares Flik right into his eyes. It unnerves him at how this man was looking at him. Clik puts his left hand up to the sword at his neck and pushes it lightly away, "know me by another name." Flik allows his sword to be pushed aside. He doesn't know why. Something inside tells him not to attack this person."

"Enough." Shu points at Clik. "Men get the spy."

"Spy?" Clik looks at Shu surprised. "Me? Wait a minute. You said I was Archery Captain, and that I lead a unit in the Calvary. Now you say I'm a spy?" Clik starts to back out of the room.

"You come in, in hopes to steal information." Shu says angrily. "And to think we almost let you in on our battle meeting."

"Hey, I didn't want to come. But you guys insisted that I do." Clik looks back to Flik for help. "Hey, help me out here."

"I…I don't know who you are." Flik shakes his head and brings his sword back up. "But I intend to find out, spy."

"But I'm not a spy." Clik sees that he cannot convince anyone at this rate and breaks into a run down the stairs. Flik is close on his heels.

"After them. Don't let the spy get away." Shu orders and the soldiers follow after them. Jason, Viktor, and Shu follow after them in that order. After them Justin and McDohl want to get into the act, so they brought out their weapons and are at the strategist's heel. Panicked, Gremio and Nanami chase after them.

Clik gets to the bottom floor and slides to a stop in behind the Guardian Deity. Pushing off the statue he goes right and runs down the East Wing. Hangs another right and trips going down the stairs. He scrambles to his feet and runs out the door. Clik chances a look back to see that Flik is not as far back as he would hope. He's out the door and goes in a spin trying to turn left. Nina appears in front of him, making an attempt to grab him, but Clik manages to stop spinning and heads for the baths. Flik comes out after him and Nina is confused.

"Sir Flik? But I just saw you past by here not a second ago." Nina jumps in front of him. "There are two of you? Oh, I have double vision and I'm loving it."

"Out of the way brat." Flik pushes her to the side. He runs into the baths after he heard some screaming in the women's side. A voice is trying to convince them that he needs only a minute to reveal a secret, but his bombarded with buckets and soap. Knowing better, Flik stays outside ready to pounce on Clik as he runs by. But he didn't get a chance to make a grab as Clik slide to the men's side of the room. He had slipped on a bar of soap and it sent him past the door and Flik. Again Clik scrambles to his feet, Flik coming in after him. Throwing his weapons to the side, Clik jumps into the bath and submerges himself. Flik tosses his sword and it landed next to Clik's weapons. He jumps into the bath and shoves his hand into the water. When Flik grabs hold of what would be a collar, he yanks it up. The face that comes up with it, is not the same face as before. It's covered with long brown hair that comes down past the shoulders. A hand comes up to move it out of the face. Flik looks at the face, down at the chest, then back at the face. "Kitty?" He asks when he finds his voice. Flik releases her collar and they both stand up.

"Hi Flik." The woman gathers her long brown hair into a ponytail and brings it over her right shoulder. "Long time no see." The soldiers come into the baths, followed by Jason, Viktor, and Shu. A second after Justin, McDohl, Gremio, and Nanami enter after him.

"Where is he?" Nanami jumps around from behind all the people to see. "Did Flik catch him? Did Flik catch the spy? What are we going to do with him?"

"No, but were about to take him into custody, as soon as Sir Flik moves out of the way." Shu tells him.

"Uh…" Flik moves to one side. "This person is no spy." He blushes with embarrassment. "This person is my twin sister, Catherine." He laughs nervously.

"I'm sorry for the confusion." Catherine bows her head, blushing at the same time. "I meant no harm."

"What do you make of this Master Ranma?" Gremio asks McDohl.


	8. Painful Heart

**Disclaimer: **SuikodenKonomi, JusenkyöRanma 1/2

**Note:** A dramatic side for just a moment. Also Ranma is the Suikoden 1 hero and no connection to comic/cartoon. Justin is the Suikoden 2 Hero. Mavericks is the army name.

**Painful Heart**

Everyone is back into the Meeting Hall. Justin and Ranma stand on the top of the room, Gremio is on Ranma's left as Nanami is on Justin's right. Flik and Catherine are standing next to each other a couple of feet from the lower step. They soaking wet, looking up at the Mavericks leader and former Liberation's leader. Viktor is on Flik's left with his sword and Jason is on Catherine's right with her weapons. Everybody else in the room, except for Shu and Apple stand behind the two cape people. Apple stands to one side on the middle step as Shu is pacing back and forth on the same step. His left hand is behind his back and his right hand is rubbing his chin. He does not look at amused. "This…" Shu starts to say, stopping in front of them and shaking his right index finger. "This…is inexcusable." His face slowly turns a light shade red as he glares at them. "Think of all the trouble you have caused us. COULD have caused us." He points at Catherine. "By…(takes a deep breath)…by coming in here portraying your brother."

"But I wasn't trying to portray him." Catherine pleads. "I was coming to look for him." She waves her right hand around to show all the people she meant. "You all thought I was him."

"And yet, you didn't bother to say a word about it." Shu's face reddens even more. "You're brother could have be out there…_seriously_ hurt." He emphasized the word 'seriously'. "And we wouldn't have been out looking for him, because we thought it was he was you. He could have died, because you wouldn't talk." At that point he turn his back on the both of them. Both hands now rested crosses behind him.

"Aw, there was not harm done." Flik waves a hand like it was all right. "If anyone is to blame, it's the messenger. He should have been here with the note before she even arrived."

"It does not matter." Shu whips around, he had uncrosses his arms from behind him in the process. "The fact of the moment was…" He had slammed his right fist into the open palm of his left with each word, and then points a right index finger at Catherine. "She…"

"She what?!" Flik gets into Shu's face. "She proved that you let down your defense. That you let some unknown person in to the castle and near Justin?" He says with a glare. Shu starts to say something, but falls silent. He brings his right hand to his chin again and turns his head to the side, away from Flik's. His eyes move rapidly about like he's thinking about something. Suddenly Shu squeezes his right hand into a fist so tight, his knuckles turn white and glares back at Flik. Flik has a satisfying looking on his face, because he just showed that the strategist made a mistake. Shu's face darkens with anger. "I should lock you up with her." He points right at Catherine. Ashamed she looks at the ground, the end of her wet cape wringing in her hands.

"You are not locking her up anywhere." Flik's face also darkens with anger. "Don't you take your humiliation out on her."

"Flik…stop." Catherine reaches up to pull her brother back. "It's ok. I understand." It takes all she could to get him down one step. "I wasn't using common sense and this is the result from it."

"It's not fair." Flik turns to look at her. "It's not fair, that just because he made a grave mistake as this to take it out on you."

"It's not like he's going to lock me up forever." Catherine tries to give a reassuring smile. "Who…who know, he might let me out a day before the war ends." She gives a nervous laugh. Flik snorts at the comment, Shu doesn't look any more amused by it then Flik did about the whole thing.

"Flik's right." Viktor decides to butt in. "You can't hold him…her accountable for anything. We all thought it was him." Viktor throws a thumb point at Flik, who was now next to him again.

"And though, I thought his…er…her attitude was bad. I don't see any more reason to lock her up than a person playing an innocent prank." Jason throws his two-sense worth in.

"But that's just it." Shu put his right hand over him mouth, gives a deep sigh through his fingers, and then slides it down to around the back of his neck. Shu wrings his neck with frustration. "It wasn't a innocent prank." He goes back to pacing the step, as if to walk out his anger, his arms once more folded behind him. Shu goes right first, "As I feel I should repeat." He turns around and goes left, all the heads follow him. "Sir Flik could have be out there, seriously hurt or dying." Turns around and goes right again. "And here we are trying to convince someone who looks like him to be him." Shu turns around again. "We could have lost a valuable warrior, general, archer, Calvary person to a stupid mistake as some who knows how to use makeup well."

"It's…it's not a makeup job." Catherine says timidly.

"What?!" Shu stops pacing and looks straight at her. Flik looks at her confuse. There were gasps all over the room. "What do you mean, it's not a makeup job?"

"Just as it is suppose to mean." Catherine feels a little crowded now. "Ever heard of the forbidden training grounds of 'Ponds of Many Drownings'?"

"You mean, 'Jusenkyö'?" Shu's eyes widen. "You went the cursed training ground?" Catherine nodded.

"'Ponds of Many Drownings'?! 'Jusenkyö'?!" Viktor looks at Shu, "What's the matter?" Everyone now looks to the strategist for answers.

"Never in my life, have I heard of anyone going to the 'Ponds of Many Drownings' and come back to tell their story." Shu brings his right hand up to his chin and holds it there. His eyes move rapidly again as he thinks. "No…no. Nobody in any time or history since it was found has ever come back from there."

"What is this place you talk of?" Flik demands to know. "Is there something wrong with you?" He turns Catherine to face him. Flik hold her face in his hand and looks her in the eyes, trying to see if he could find anything wrong.

"Your sister has been cursed." Shu says gravely. "I think that's punishment enough. She is free to go." He waves a hand to dismiss everybody.

"Cursed?!" Flik looks up at Shu, releasing his sister's face. "What do you mean cursed?"

"That's not for me to tell." Shu says, turning his back on Flik. "It's up to her to explain it. I wash my hands of this mess." Flik goes to reach for Shu, to turn him around and demand an answer, but Catherine stops him. She holds his right arm and keeps him by her side, shaking her head.

"But…"

"I'll explain later." Catherine says quietly. "Right now, I would like to wear some dry clothes for a while. It's getting cold." Flik gives a deep sigh and nods in agreement. "Besides…" Catherine pulls on his arm to lead him out of the Meeting Hall, "I have other news I must give you later." The doors close behind them and the rest of the hall is left in silence.

"Is it bad Shu?" Viktor asks after taking a deep breath.

"Is it bad?" Shu says slowly. "Is it bad?" Voice seems to rise a little. "It's…it's...." The people in front of Shu are confused by the look on his face. He turns around so the rest of the hall could see the wide grin on his face. "It's hilarious." He laughs.

"What's so funny?" Jason demands.

"Yes, Shu. I don't see the joke behind all this." Teresa gives him a stern look.

"Oh sweet revenge, for make me a fool." Shu says under his breath, his eyes moving rapidly once more. Then he clears voice and looks at everyone in front of him. "It's not as serious as you would think. But it's not very pleasant either."

"You're not giving us any answers here." Viktor taps the right side of his head with his right index finger. "You sound crazy right now."

"Let's just say, that the temperature of the water will determine who he…she…will be." Shu laughs before he leaves the room and heads for his office. Everyone else in the Meeting Hall was left to wonder what he meant.

Elsewhere 

"I can't believe you've talked me into wearing this." Flik pulls on the shirt of his blue ninja gi. "I don't even know how this thing works." He was standing outside his room. Catherine was inside changing, Flik had to change in Viktor's room.

"It's not all that hard." Catherine comes out in a red ninja gi. She takes one look at him and laughs.

"Glad you think it's so funny."

"You tuck your shirt into the pants and tie the belt around it. It's like what you were wearing before." Catherine ties his belt after he tucked his shirt in. "There. You don't look so bad." Flik rolls his eyes, and then takes her hand in his. She looks at him and blushes. "Flik…we haven't held hands since…since we were kids."

"Yeah, so." They start to walk to the stairs.

"Don't you feel…awkward?"

"Do you?" They descend the stairs and walk out on to the courtyard.

"No…" They walk up to the pond that sat by the castle wall. They drop hands and have a seat next to large flat rock under a tree by the right of the lake. Catherine looks into the pond.

"Water still fascinates you?" Flik laughs.

"As much as lightening fascinates you." Catherine laughs back.

"So…the curse…"

"It's not deadly, just annoying."

"Oh. Guess its true what they said back in the village." Flik smiles at her.

"About…if I were a boy, we'd look exactly alike?"

"Yeah." There was a long silence, before he speaks up again. "So…what is it you have to tell me?" He hears her take a deep sigh and then she takes his left hand up in her right. With her left hand, she brings an amulet out from under the shirt of her gi. It was a circular red jewel surround with a centimeter of gold and gold back on a gold braided chain. "I haven't seen that in years." Flik whispered, staring at the amulet. Catherine gives a weak smile as she holds the amulet over his left hand, red jewel side down. Flik is confused at what his sister was doing.

"Go to him." Catherine whispers. A blue light comes from the amulet and shines onto his hand. He watches as a wind rune appears on his hand. Flik looks at her, with a glare in his eyes.

"Take it off!" Flik demands. Catherine looks at him with sympathic eyes and puts his hand on his lap with a light pat. Then she puts the amulet back under her shirt. He shoves his hand in her face. "I said, take it off." Catherine shakes her head, her eyes well up with tears. "I don't want a wind rune. How…how could you put this on me without my permission." She wipes her eyes with her hands and sniffles before looking at him.

"She wanted you to have it." Catherine whispers, her voice is cracked.

"What?" Flik whispers back.

"She wants you to have it. To have her rune…so that you know that she will always be with you." A tear rolls down Catherine's eye. She watches as Flik looks at the new rune on his hand. Then he looks at her, like he didn't understand. Catherine took another deep breath, her lower lip quivered. "I…I went to visit Lenkcamp one day and…and I found the clock that leads to the hideout." She wipes another tear from her eye with the back of her hand and wipes her hand on her shirt. "I went down to the hideout to look around. I've never been there, I…I wanted to see. I didn't know why, but I just…maybe it was to pay my respects. But…I went down and I saw her body…the water must have been so c…cold that it preserved…well." She looks over at Flik. He was running his right index finger along the curves of the rune marking. "I sat down and…and prayed that she was well and that you would see her again."

"You took her rune…" Flik doesn't look at Catherine. He couldn't find himself to look at her. "How could you have taken…?"

"Don't say it." Catherine had gone back to looking at the water, like she was remembering the day this happen. "You say what you're thinking and you'll regret it when I'm finish." Flik sits silently, but he still won't look at his sister. "Anyway, I leaned over the water and prayed. The amulet slipped out from under my shirt and this light came from her body, from her right hand. It floated right into the amulet…. I looked at the amulet and saw the wind rune homed there. A…a voice came into my head and said…said…" Catherine takes another deep breath and tries to hold back the tears. "Said, 'Give this to him. Let him know that I will always think of him and with this rune, be with him.' I looked down at water…to look at her body once more, but she was gone." Catherine lets the tears fall from her eyes, down her face. The tears land on the pond surface, each one makes a ripple on the surface. After a few minutes she looks over at Flik, he was still looking at the wind rune on his hand. His hand was wet with tears that fell from his eyes. "You do know that you were the last thing she spoke of." Catherine asked him and he nods. Flik finally take a chance to look at his twin sister.

"I'm sorry I tried to…to…"

"Forget about it. I know you hurt." Catherine leans back on the tree they sat under and brings her legs together. She bends her legs so her feet were next to her rear and her knees pointed out to the lake. When Catherine was ready, she pulls Flik towards her and lays his head on her legs. His body shakes as he presses his head into her legs. She runs her fingers throw his hair. "Go ahead. I've had my turn." She whispers and he start to cry. "I'm sorry."

Long While Later 

Viktor and Jason were walking along the courtyard, looking for Flik and his sister. "Shouldn't we give them time?" Jason asks.

"They've had plenty of time." Viktor says. "They didn't even come up for lunch." The two men come to the area where the trees sit in a circle, before the pond. They see Flik and Catherine. As quietly as they can, they slip behind a tree to see and hear the Blue Thunder with his twin sibling. Catherine was sitting on the flat rock and Flik was on his back hugging his sides. She was talking to him while he was laughing along with almost every word.

"So anyway I was…then he tried…and then…" It seem that Catherine was telling him about her time at the castle.

"Oh…please stop. It hurts…by the runes it hurts." Tears are streaming out of Flik's eyes now.

"But I have to tell you about when…" Catherine laughs at the sight Flik looked. Flik was now holding one side with one hand and pounding the ground with the other.

"Oh…" The man in blue takes a deep breath when she's done. "Oh…I forgot how funny you could tell a story." Flik sits up and scoots back to lean against the tree. He wipes his eyes with the back of his hand. They sit in silence, looking at the mother swan keep her babies in line. Viktor and Jason were deciding to make their move, when Flik starts speak up again. "Why did you leave?" Catherine looks down at him with a shocked look on her face. It would seem she didn't expect him to ask her that. "I wondered why you left us…before the war. Some of the men thought you chickened out. But I knew better."

"Why did you have to ruin a good mood?" Catherine brought her legs up to her chest. She wraps her arms around her them and rests her chin on her knees. "Save the embarrassing stories to cheer you up after what I just put you through."

"Its ok. I just want to know why you left." Flik waves a hand.

"To awkward to stay, to awkward to go home." Catherine mutters.

"What?"

"Well…we use to do everything together…you know?" Catherine asked and Flik nods. "And we use to know what the other one would want to without saying thing?" He nods again. "Well I just knew when it was time to go." Catherine continues to stare out at the water.

"You felt you had to leave?"

"Yeah. I decided to leave while you guys were recruiting people."

"Why?"

"Third wheel." Catherine gives a deep sigh. "I knew sometime we would have to go our separate ways and I just looked for the signs that would say so. When I saw how well you and Odessa was, I felt it was my time go. Before I would be asked to leave."

"I would never ask you to leave."

"I know, that's why I left. It would have been a hardship."

"Where did you go?" Flik brings his legs up and sits the same way Catherine did.

"I went home first…to say goodbye. Then I moved out to Jowston."

"Did you see father?"

"Yeah."

"Does he still blame you?"

"No, but he still hasn't forgiven me either."

"It's not your fault you know."

"Maybe."

"Shouldn't go down that road. We've been down that road before."

"We?"

"Viktor and I, we thought about it the time when Odessa…"

"Viktor…you mean the guy that's been sit with his buddy over there." Catherine points to where Viktor and Jason were hiding. "Do they follow you around everywhere you go?"

"Heh. No, they only did that cause they thought you were me." Flik looks over to where she points and lifts up his head. "Why don't you come join us, instead of ease dropping."

"How sharp are those ears of hers?" Viktor asks as he and Jason came over to them.

"I could hear you coming from over there." Catherine points to at the wall opposite of the castle. She watches as the two men sit down crosses legged in front Flik and the rock. "Go ahead and ask." She could see they had questions.

"If you know what we want to know, why should we ask?" Jason looks up at her.

"To be nice."

"Ok, so why would your father find fault with you?" Viktor laid on his back, crossed his arms under his head to get comfortable.

"Guess who came first." Catherine looks down at Viktor.

"Uh…" Viktor looks at Flik, to Catherine, then back at Flik again. "Um…" He looks to Jason for a guess. Jason looks at the twins, then back at Viktor and shrugs.

"Neither." Catherine says finally.

"Neither?" Viktor raised an eyebrow. "How did…?

"Had to be cut out." Catherine takes one of her hands from her legs and rubs the back of her neck. "They had to cut mom's stomach open to get us out. She died on the table, blood loss."

"So your father blames you both for the death of your mother? That's tough." Jason runs a hand through his hair.

"He doesn't blame Flik, just me."

"Why?"

"Cause it was my cord wrapped around both our necks. They had to get us both out or neither."

"Kitty." Flik puts a hand on the arm that was still around her legs.

"Doctor wondered why no head was crowning, he stuck a hand it to help. Felt both our heads squeezed together with a cord around our necks. Mother was going to die either way, but doctors thought he would cut us out in hope we'd survive. When they did, they saw my cord around us. For the longest time, father never let me forget it was my fault…till now." There were silences, only sound was the wind blowing the leaves. It started to get dark as the sun lowered. "Let's get something to eat. I need a drink." Catherine gets off the rock and heads for the castle entrance.


	9. Wetting the Whistle in More Ways Then On...

**Disclaimer:** Suikoden, Ranam 1/2 concept: Not Mine.

**Note:** Ok, so with this story I'm beating a horse to death, but I figure it was the best way to explain the curse. (Shrugs) And I don't drink, so I don't know much on drinking contest, so if it sound out right bogus...I don't know what to tell ya. P.S. I'm not all waysgood with titles, so this one might not make as much sense as I hoped.

**Wetting the Whistle in More Ways Then One**

"So…what is this curse?"

"Can you possible not talk with your mouthful, Viktor?" Flik pinches the bridge of his nose and shakes his head. He, Catherine, Jason and Viktor sat in the restaurant having dinner. Viktor had taken a big bite of a chicken leg.

"At least he's quick to the punch." Catherine says before she takes a sip of milk. She hears Viktor swallow hard. Catherine was about to say something when an all too familiar voice comes ringing to their ears.

"Siiir Fliiik." Nina comes busting into the restaurant.

"Oh no." Flik groans as he slides down in his chair.

"I know how you feel." Catherine pats his shoulder.

"How would you…? Oh yeah."

"You seem awfully friendly with my Sir Flik." Nina comes to their table, her hands on her hips. "What is your deal with him?"

"What's it to you?" Catherine looks at the little blonde.

"He's my boyfriend."

"I thought Clik was your boyfriend."

"Clik is a spy. I don't date spies."

"You don't date me either." Flik says, waving a hand to shoo her away.

"Oh, don't talk that way to me." Nina whines.

"Why don't you leave him alone?" Catherine asks.

"Why don't you stay out of this?" Nina retorts back.

"Don't you talk that way to her." Flik shoots out of his chair and glares down at Nina.

"S…Sir Flik." Nina was taken back. "How could you talk to me like that?" She turns her back to him and falls on to her knees, hugging herself. "How could a sweet man speak in such a tone?"

"I didn't know dinner came with a show." Catherine tips her glass towards Nina and Flik before taking another sip.

"You…" Nina jumps to her feet and glares at Catherine. "This is all your fault. You want to take him from me."

"And why would I want to do that?" Catherine blinks at her innocently. That steamed Nina and she looks around for something. "For your information, I'm…" Catherine was cut short when Nina grabbed a pitcher of ice water from one of the waitress walking by and throws it on Catherine. "Eeek…"

"You little brat!" Flik yells at Nina. He grabs a napkin to help wipe Catherine's face, when he stops. Viktor drops the chicken leg he held and Jason's mouth hangs open showing the food he was munching on. Everyone else in the restaurant just stared

"It's he spy." Nina cried.

"She's…he's…" Flik didn't know what to say. He looks at where his sister was sitting. There sat…him, only dressed in red. "That' person is not a spy." He points at Clik.

"What just happen?" Viktor choked out.

"This is the curse." Clik sighs. "When I'm hit with cold water, I turn into a guy. When I'm hit with warm water, I turn back into my original form."

"How is that even possible?" Jason asked.

"Don't know." Clik shrugs. "I fell in a pond that was called the 'Drown Man'."

"The 'Drown Man'?" Flik sits down and looks at his now twin 'brother'.

"The tour guide said that some man drowned in that pond about…what was it? Uh…2,000 years ago and anything that falls in to the pond takes the body of a man."

"So if I were to do something like this." Viktor turns to the table behind him where Zamza and Hanna sat. He asked for their pot of hot water and pours it on to Clik. "You turn into a woman."

"That's about the sizes of it." Catherine brushes her bangs out of her face. "The annoying thing about this, besides the changing with water, is my hair length. I go from long hair in woman mode and short hair in man mode."

"Ok. This is different." Viktor laughed. Since the fun was over, everyone went back to eating and Flik managed to shoo Nina off.

"So why didn't you jumped into the pond of the 'Drown Woman' to take off the curse." Jason asks.

"Because the ponds are not labeled and there is like about a 1,000 ponds there." Catherine wrings out her shirt.

"Why didn't the guide tell you which one it was…more importantly, why didn't he stop you?" Flik looks at her.

"Don't know. I think he gets a kick out of watch how stupid we martial artists are." Catherine gets up from the table. "I'm going to go change into some dry clothes." She tells the three men. As she walks out the door, a bucket of water comes down on her and they hear Nina sigh. Clik pops his head back into the restaurant. "Correction. I'm going to take a hot bath and then change into some dry clothes. I'll know where to meet you later."

Later At The Tavern 

"So who's up for a night of hard drinking?" Viktor rubs his hands together. "I have both drinking buddies back, nothing could spoil this night."

"I know someone who's not." Jason points a thumb at Catherine. She and Flik changed back into their usual clothing.

"That's what you think." Catherine looks slyly at him. "I was thinking of having a drinking game. I have a pouch full of potch that wouldn't mind some company"

"You?" Jason raises an eyebrow. "Mr. I-like-weak-wine."

"Hey, if you can't keep up with me…" Catherine shrugs.

"Oh, you don't know me or big V here." Jason puts a hand Viktor's shoulder and pats the big man's stomach. "This stomach could hold more liquor than you wouldn't believe."

"Then why don't you put her potch where your mouth is?" Catherine pulls out a large roll of potch and sets it on the table. "5 potch per shot of whiskey. You pay a 5 potch and take a shot. Ante is 10 potch."

"You're on." Jason brings out what potch he had. Flik and Viktor look at each other before shrugging. The four sit down at the round table. Leona comes sashaying over with two bottles of whiskey and four shot glasses. Before they start Catherine does something that raises a couple eyebrows. The young woman brings her two index fingers together and intertwines the rest of her fingers together. She points her index fingers in the air and brings them to her nose. With her eyes closed, her hands begin to shake. Then she opens her eyes suddenly and slams her hand onto the table.

"Ok, ready to go." Catherine sighs.

"What was that?" Viktor asks flatly.

"Maybe she was praying that she won't pass out after the second shot." Jason laughs. Catherine looks over to Flik and he looks back, shaking his head. First to take a shot was Flik. He puts down 15 potch, takes his shot, and takes a deep breath. The circle goes right, so it was Viktor's turn. He puts down his potch and takes his shot like it was nothing. Next was Jason and he does the same. Now it came to be Catherine's turn. She picks up the shot glass in her left hand and held her right hand sideways at chest level. She shoots the whiskey and as she lets out a breath, she squeezes her right hand close. It shakes with how tight she closed it.

"What are you doing?" Jason asks.

"I'll tell you later, if I feel like it." Catherine turns to Flik for his turn. Every time it came to Catherine's turn, she would do the same movements. People wondered why, but they soon got more into the contest and didn't care any more. They go around in the circle at least 10 times before Flik has to back out. He pushes his chair back and puts his hand up in defeat. 3 more shots later and Jason had to do the same thing. Now it was between Viktor and Catherine, neither looked like they were going to back down. After 20 shot later, neither still looked like they were going to back down.

"You do know I have to close soon." Leona reminds everyone.

"No one is going to drink me under the table." Viktor glares at Catherine to intimated her. She returns the look.

"I haven't even felt the buzz yet." Catherine smiles and looks over at the bar. "I have idea. A sudden death thing." She motions Leona to come over to her and she whispers in her ear. Leona nodded and went over to the bar. She ducks behind it, to comes back with a large bottle and two large brandy snifters. Leona ours the brandy all the way to the top of each glass. "Its Forest Village's best and hardest brandy. 50 potch for the glass. We down it and then at the count of three, stand for 20 seconds. The first one to fall before the 20 seconds are up, forfeits. You up for it?"

"Always like a challenge." Viktor throws his 50 potch, snatches up the glass and raises it to Catherine. She throws her potch, takes her glass and raises it to him. They clinked glasses before they both start drinking it. When they finished, they slam their glasses down and Leona counts to three. On three both Viktor and Catherine jump up so fast that they knocked their seats to the floor. They stand there looking at each other. Viktor folds his arms on his chest and Catherine cross her wrists in front of her chest. Her head bowed as she closes her eyes. Everyone in the room count the seconds. Just as they were about to say twenty, Viktor legs give out and he slides down into a cross-legged seat. He looks up at her with a drunken look on his face. "Good stuff." He laughs.

"I know." Catherine collects her winnings. She put a 100 potch on the table and goes to walk out. Viktor gets some help off the floor and he looks at her. Catherine walked a straight-line pass him and he stops her.

"How is it you're not even drunk?" Viktor asks her. She looks at him and motions him to turn his ear close to her. She brings her lips close to his ear and lets out a large belch. Viktor grabs his ear and recoils back. Catherine smiles and walks out the tavern. Viktor looks to Flik for answer.

"Mind over matter." Flik says.

"She will's herself not to get drunk?" Viktor raises an eyebrow.

"Pretty much. She learned it from her martial arts teacher. Tried to teach me once, but I never got it."

"So we got duped." Jason rubs his tired eyes.

"Pretty much." Flik shrugs. "But I think there is going to be more payment than some potch tomorrow."


End file.
